The Root Chronicles
by GCokes
Summary: Revised. 16 Years Post Time Skip. The 4th Great Shinobi War is over and Konoha is in a time of hardship. The Leaf is devastated due to aftermath of the war and countless shinobi have died. Naruto had one choice to save his village, he had to rebuild Root.
1. Prologue

**Revised 6/26/2009**

**This story takes off after the end of a final battle in JFalcon's **_**New Blood**_** which I have dubbed, the "Fourth Great Shinobi War."**** I used it as a template to allow a proper timeline for my story to begin. I use some of his characters from **_**New Blood**_**, but the story itself is completely my own. This chapter basically gives you all the information you need from **_**New **__**Blood**_** to understand the events occurring in **_**Root: The Kazegan. **_

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters created by Kishimoto in this story nor do I own any of the characters created by JFalcon. The only thing I own about this fan fiction are the characters I create and the storyline I am about to unravel.**

**The Prologue to **_**Root: The Kazegan**_

* * *

Living in the Land of Fire was peaceful, at least where he was. Apparently, he had heard from the people in the town that there was a war going on all around the country. Fortunately, his town had yet to be affected by it.

He lived in a town on the very southern tip of the Fire Country. It was right on the water and had a very thriving community. It was self-sufficient and there was no trouble in these parts, so they never had to worry about the fear of an attack or anything of the sort. Occasionally, there would be traveling groups of samurai but that's the most the town had ever seen of combatants.

In the village, he was known as the guy with the yellow eyes. Few knew his name because others didn't bother to approach him. The people kind enough to befriend him were honest and trustworthy people. They didn't judge him because of the way he looked or because he was an outsider, they just accepted him. He never had to explain where he was from or why his eyes were the way they were, nor could he if he wanted to. He just lived his new life without the worry of trouble.

However, every night he would lie in his bed and try to remember what his former life had been like. He had slight memories, nothing tangible. Every time his mind would catch a glimpse of something, it would wither away. The only memory he had managed to recover was the memory of a night where he engaged in a deadly battle. He had small pieces which would flash back and forth through his mind, but nothing else.

He could remember using his eyes to their maximum; using their strength to increase his speed within the wind and to focus on the chakra around him. He knew that for him to be using his eyes to such an extent the battle must have been a matter of life or death . He remembered hearing his enemies scream for help and beg for mercy. But what he remembered the most was them begging for him not to end their lives.

He remembered a feeling of anger and rage within him, which he had never felt before. He couldn't remember why he was attacking these men or why they were attacking him. All he could remember was that he had to kill them. They had done something to him that for some reason he couldn't remember. Everything after that seemed to whither within his mind.

For some odd reason, he was able to remember his fighting style completely. It angered him though that he couldn't remember his life. He didn't know whether or not he had a family, where he had come from, or who he was. The only thing of his past that he knew was his name. He didn't know his last name, just his first. It wasn't much, but it was the only piece of his past that he had.

Ever since the day that the blond man had found him nearly dead in that forest, he had been waiting for the right time, a sign that he should start searching for answers. His life had become a wait for the truth. He knew that one day he would have to leave the village in an attempt to find answers, but for now he would stay here and live the quaint life he was living, or so he thought.

That same day he made that decision, his life took a turn he had not expected. That same man who had saved him that long time ago was back. This time though, it wasn't he who needed the man, but the man who needed him.

* * *

Konoha had become a land of peace. Much had changed after the final battle. Konoha, Suna and the surprise ally, Kiri, had emerged as the victors. Oto, Iwa, and the treacherous Kumo led by Kabuto's iron fist, failed to succeed in their attempts to crush Konoha and unite the land under one Shogun.

Every village had suffered a vast amount of losses, agony, and suffering after the war was over. Bonds were strengthened and ties which were once considered inseparable were severed in midst of the angst of war. The once thriving and prosperous Konoha was struggling. It's walls needed to be repaired, relations between foreign daimyos and it needed to be straightened out, and most important of all, it needed to replace its most important weapon and it's most important defense.

Shinobi were nothing but a tool, a weapon, a means of protecting its land's daimyo in exchange for money and sometimes, their lives. The people who hired them disregarded the fact that in a reality parallel to theirs, shinobi also had their own lives and families that they hoped to go back to after every mission.

The figurative "calm after the storm"" would not last long. It wouldn't take much time until the remnants of Oto rebuilt itself. Whether it be under the command of the now missing Kabuto or a new dictator, once they were stabilized they surely would not hesitate to make another attempt at destroying Konoha. On the other hand, Iwa would have less trouble getting back on its feet. The Tsuchikage had managed to survive and they had plenty of ninja left to maintain their standing as one of the five most powerful ninja villages.

Kumo was on the fence. After the death of the true Raikage, Hattori Tetsuo reclaimed his position as Raikage. His clan had suffered many losses at the hands of Konoha. His little sister had defected from his village and joined the ranks of Oto to later be slaughtered by Leaf shinobi. His father made an attempt at the now Rokudaime Hokage, Naruto, but failed miserably and fell to his death. No one knew whether or not the Village Hidden in the Clouds would side with or against the Leaf.

As for Konoha's allies, they were no better off than any other village. Suna was on the brink of ceasing to exist. There was an ongoing political battle going on in the Land of Wind for the position of Daimyo. There were barely any missions being sent to the village and they were depending on foreign feudal lords to send them requests which paid less than half what their own land once paid. Konoha had been trying to offer them any extra missions they could but the Leaf needed as many missions as they could get. The only time they would pass anything on to Suna is if it were more convenient to them or if they had a shortage of shinobi.

Kiri made the trip back to its homeland after the battle. Kumo had forcefully pushed them from their home and now they were back to continue on with business as usual. When they had arrived, rogue ninja were attempting to take control of the village but were easily overpowered by the full force of their army. The current Mizukage, Hozuki Suigetsu, began the process of rebuilding the _Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu_. They notified their new partners, Suna and Konoha, of the revitalization of their program and let them know that the methods they will use will be very similar to those used in the past. Whether or not Suna and Konoha condone their methods is unknown but neither village is in a position to attempt to dictate another village's actions.

* * *

Konoha had a long, hard road ahead. Naruto realized that it would not be easy and he would need to cooperate with his allies if he hoped to restore his village's former glory. Rebuilding the village would be no easy task. The East, South, and West walls had been damaged during the final battle, several homes were destroyed, and even its natural barrier, the trees, needed to be replanted and kept.

He had not seen such devastation to his village since the last time it had been infiltrated nearly 15 years ago by Nagato. He would not let the village go in to the dark time it had gone in to before again. In an attempt to gain the advice of his fellow shinobi, he called a meeting of the leaders of Konoha's most well known clans.

During this meeting Naruto would reveal a program Tsunade and he had kept behind closed doors for the last year or so. In preparation for the aftermath of the then upcoming war, Tsunade consulted Naruto about rebuilding Root. Both of them had experienced firsthand the devastation of the once hidden branch of ANBU so she knew there was no better person to consult. She knew that whether Konoha faced victory or defeat, the village would be in a state of weakness.

After the last invasion of Konoha, Danzo, the former leader of the now defunct Root and past candidate for Sandaime Hokage alongside Sarutobi Hiruzen, attempted a coup d'etat against her in her fragile state but her star pupil, Sakura, came to her rescue alongside Gamakichi and several other Konoha shinobi, including Sai. To finally end the threat of Root, Tsunade made sure that any remnants of the program were destroyed and any shinobi who didn't agree to join the ranks of ANBU or the other Konoha shinobi as an alternate punishment for their betrayal would face death.

However, many would criticize the Godaime and him for their secrecy, but they would thank him because if it were not for their reconstruction of Root, the village would ultimately crumble from within. He would consult Shikamaru, his head advisor, on the matter before the meeting on how he would present this to the clan leaders. Naruto knew that Shikamaru would have the best plan of action for the situation than anyone else in Konoha.

The shinobi in Root were going to surprise even Naruto, let alone the rest of the village, with their skill, intelligence, and performance. It would take time, talking, and patience to have Konoha accept their new residents, but it would all pay off in the end.

* * *

**Glossary:**

_Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shu- _The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist

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**A/N: **There is not much in this chapter except for a way to lead you into the actual story. The first section about a man who has lost his memory is the main character of this story, which is my own Original Character. The information after that is just the back story from _New Blood_ so that you can understand why certain things are happening. There is nothing in the rest of the story which should confuse you, I don't use any information from _New Blood _which I haven't elaborated on beforehand, I just used the war in his story to kick start mine. I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoy writing it. If you have any suggestions, questions, or concerns, please feel free to send me a PM or leave me a review with anything I stated before.


	2. A Letter to Tsunade

**Chapter 1:**

**A/N:** Welcome to the official first chapter everyone. I spent most of my afternoon writing this. I hope you like it. I got quite a few views but only one review!(Thanks Zuki-chan)Remember what I said before, I take all suggestions that people put in reviews into account when I write my story! Anyway, a few old and new characters are introduced/spoken of in this chapter. Also the first battle is in this chapter! Enjoy! Don't forget to review!

* * *

Naruto called upon the first available Genin team he could find. He assigned to them a simple D-ranked delivery mission. He handed them two sets of letters. The first stack contained three letters, one addressed to the Godaime Hokage, the other to Haruno Sakura, and the third to Shikamaru Nara. He needed his advisors to be well informed on the situation before the meeting. He knew had to have his stuff ready to face the likes of people such as Hyuuga Hiashi. The second stack contained ten letters each addressed to the respective clan leaders and prominent figures in Konoha. Naruto told the Genin team that the smaller stack was to be delivered first.

"Deliver those on time, Dattebayo!" Naruto Exclaimed.

The three genin had a frightened look on their faces. Maybe Naruto was being a little too enthusiastic?

* * *

Tsunade was laid back in front of her tiny, quaint home outside Konoha. Being retired was great. She could enjoy her sake with no interruptions, no paperwork, and no loud geni-

"Hokage-obaachan!" Said a surprisingly loud voice. Tsunade turned her head to see a group of 3 children each wearing a Konoha head protector, they were most likely genin. She took a deep breath. What did Naruto want now?

"Yes?" Asked Tsunade.

"This is for you Hokage-san, straight from the Rokudaime," said the small brown haired girl.

"Well are you going to hand it to me or do you expect me to stand up?" proclaimed Tsunade.

The young blond haired genin walked over to Tsunade and handed her the letter. She grabbed it and opened it.

_Hey Granny! How's life after retiring? I bet you're doing just as much as you did when you were Hokage! -_Little brat I oughta-……_Just kidding! Well anyway I should get to the reason I'm sending you this letter. Today at around sunset I'm calling all the clan heads and prominent people in Konoha to a meeting. I don't know if you can tell but things aren't going so well in the village. Missions are paying less, reconstruction is costly and there's a shortage of shinobi. It's time to reveal Root. I have no other choice. The shinobi that have been under the training of Gikaru are nothing but top notch. Ever since the day I encountered him I knew he had unlimited potential. The reports he has sent me over the last few months are very promising. The young Yamanaka seems to be excelling. Not too long ago I entrusted Inoichi with some of his training and the notes on Gikaru's report from him say that Inokuza's skills seem to surpass his own in his prime. The medical shinobi, Takeru, which you had been training for a short time has also shown astronomical results as a combat medic-nin. They have him practicing on wounds that the others get during training sessions and he seems to be able to do it effortlessly. As for Yokama, I don't know much about her progress but I don't see why it shouldn't be great. She is under Gikaru's mentorship. Anyway Granny, be there on time and drink plenty of sake, you're going to need it!_

_Signed,_

_The Most Unpredictable Hokage_

_Uzumaki Naruto._

Naruto was right. She was going to need a lot more sake.

"Hey kid, want to make a few extra bucks? Run inside my house and heat me up three flasks of sake, on the double!"

* * *

Gikaru heard the door slam. He took his bright yellow eyes off the report he was writing and looked up. He already knew who it was. It couldn't be Inoichi because he wasn't scheduled to come down here to train Inokuza today. So it could only be one person, Naruto.

He stood up from his desk, "Hokage-sama, what brings you here?"

"Good afternoon Gikaru-san," said Naruto as he bowed.

"Same to you Hokage-sama," replied Gikaru as he stood up from his chair and bowed in return.

"What brings you here so unexpectedly sir?" asked Gikaru as he motioned for Naruto to take a seat.

"I understand it might seem sudden but I think it's time I present both the program and you to the village Gikaru. Times are bad, we need as many shinobi we can get and I think you guys are ready." Naruto had a serious look on his face. That wasn't typical for the usually bright and energetic Hokage.

"Hokage-sama, I don't think we're ready. I mean I have faith in my students and the other members of Root but none of us are near where we should be," Gikaru was concerned. Things really did have to be bad for Naruto to be rushing him the way he was. It was extremely unexpected of the man who was usually pushing back deadlines.

"The last time I sparred with you Gikaru you nearly took my hand off! I'm pretty sure with you training this kids they're ready. I have nothing but the utmost fate in your abilities to teach Gikaru. I mean, they must be almost as good as me by now!" He smiled.

"But-," He was cut off by Naruto.

"But nothing! There's no way you can convince me otherwise Gikaru. I have no other choice but to add the program to the village's roster of shinobi. By the end of this weekend, your shinobi will be accepting missions." Gikaru was having a hard time processing everything that was going on. It was all happening too quickly and he needed to stop Naruto and give his shinobi time to perfect their skills. He knew he needed another month and there was only one way to convince the hard headed Rokudaime.

"Naruto-sama. If I can defeat you in a practice battle, would it be possible to give me another month?" Gikaru was challenging the Hokage.

"That sounds like fun," said a surprised Hokage as he rubbed his chin. "I think I'll go along with it! But that's only because I know I can beat you! Dattebayo!"

* * *

They walked into a worn arena. Training was defiantly no joke under the village within the Root Headquarters. Naruto knew that a spar with Gikaru wouldn't be a walk in the park. The Kazegan was a fearsome dojutsu. Those vibrant, pulsing yellow eyes, they were nothing like he'd seen before. To be able to control the wind currents around him and to be able to merge with air was ability Naruto feared. Naruto had sparred with him a few times before, and every time he did Gikaru had a new technique up his sleeve. It was time to see what Gikaru had to show him this time.

* * *

Gikaru took a deep breath as he walked to the opposite side of the arena as Naruto. He was about to spar with one of the most revered and powerful Hokages to date. '_The Demon of Konoha'_ is what he knew Naruto by before living in the village. The beast which resided within him gave him that title all throughout the world. However, Gikaru had learned that the demon residing within Naruto didn't define him, it didn't control him. Naruto controlled the demon.

However, it was time Gikaru focused on the battle ahead. He had to defeat Naruto to be able to give his students ample time to prepare for their reintroduction in to normal life. Their last year in Root had defiantly been different from their normal lives. Most of the shinobi that were now in the program had lived simple lives, training to be like any other shinobi. But the shinobi Gikaru had been overseeing were not like any other shinobi. They were tough, skilled, and intelligent. They had been trained by the best.

While in the program, they learned the ins and outs of combat strategy. They learned to adjust to their terrains, their opponent's abilities, and to almost any handicap. Lost an arm in battle? Get over it and defeat your opponent. The main objective of a shinobi was to complete their mission and do the job they were getting paid to do. If you couldn't do that, you weren't worthy of being a shinobi, let alone a member of Root.

He looked at Naruto on the other side of the arena. Naruto had taken off his Hokage robes and put them off to the side. Naruto took a battle stance directed straightly at him. Gikaru formed a hand seal and yelled,

"_Kazegan!"_

* * *

Naruto took off right after Gikaru activated his Kazegan. He could tell from the distance he was at that a small green pupil had filled the center of Gikaru's eyes. The vibrant yellow eyes now had veins pulsating out of them much like the Hyuuga' did when they activated their Byakugan.

Naruto formed a tiger seal as he activated his signature jutsu,

"_Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_

There were now 5 identical Narutos' charging at Gikaru. Gikaru then formed his seals at lightning speed and shouted,

"_Water Release: Water Shockwave"_A large stream of water erupted from Gikaru's mouth and filled the battlefield in about a foot of water. Naruto applied some chakra to his feet and began to stand on the water alongside two of his clones.

Two other clones were still charging at Gikaru and had begun to form Rasengans' in their palms. Gikaru took a defensive stance and watched the two clones as they charged towards him. One of the clones had reached his vicinity and yelled, "_Rasengan!_" but he merely ducked and swept the clones legs from under him and elbowed him in the gut. The clone then 'poofed' and became a cloud of smoke. The other had made its way over to Gikaru raised its arm and attempted to thrust Gikaru with a Rasengan but Gikaru quickly withdrew a kunai from his holster and slashed the clone across the neck, meeting the same fate as the last clone.

"You were able to handle my clones with almost no effort Gikaru, your defiantly getting better. But, you can't stay on the defensive forever, show me what you got!" shouted Naruto from the other end of the arena.

Gikaru began to form the appropriate hand seal for his jutsu and shouted,

"_Water Clone Jutsu!"_ Two copies of Gikaru, both possessing the Kazegan, emerged from the water beside Gikaru. They were giving Naruto a blank stare.

"That's cute, you're getting very skilled at those water jutsu Gikaru, I might have to ask you for a few tips," said Naruto playfully

Gikaru smirked and motioned for the clones to advance. He slammed his hands together and suddenly more water began to spit out of his mouth, increasing the water level in the room a great deal. If it weren't for the extremely high ceilings they would be underwater. As he began to dash towards Naruto he leapt into the air and slammed his hands together again and shouted,

"_Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"_

As Gikaru was midair, a gigantic wave of water grew to meet his feet and began to surge towards Naruto. Naruto smirked and ran towards the giant wave as stretched out his arm and loudly announced his jutsu,

"_Wind Release: Rasengan!_"

With no difficulty whatsoever, he threw the white gleaming ball of chakra at the giant wave and watched it impact the causing an enormous spiraling hole in the wave which resulted in the body of water crashing to the ground and Gikaru doing a flip off the wave withdrawing a kunai in his right hand using the force of his fall to charge at Naruto. Naruto then used a shuriken he had taken from his tool pouch and threw it at Gikaru and quickly formed five quick seals and shouted,

"_Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_

Gikaru's eyes widened and he suddenly began to merge with the air around him. Naruto was stunned and in his moment of surprise one Gikaru's clones swept his feet as the other tried to slash him with a sword made of water. Naruto quickly formed a hand seal right before he fell and he 'poofed'.

Gikaru cursed under his breath, "Substitution…"

"Dattebayo!," screamed Naruto as he slammed a Rasengan into the back of the clone which attempted to slice his back and completed another _Shadow Clone Jutsu_ which created two clones that simultaneously kicked the other Gikaru clone into a puddle of water.

Gikaru then reformed a few feet behind Naruto and attempted to punch him in the back of the head but Naruto spun and used the force of his spin to grab Gikaru's arm and throw him to ground. Naruto took a kunai out of his holster and held it to Gikaru's neck.

He smiled and said, "I win."

* * *

Naruto had returned to the Hokage building and taken a shower. After the fierce battle with Gikaru, he needed to wash up and prepare for the meeting he had called. It was nearly sunset when Naruto looked out the window of his office. He slipped on his Hokage robe with the Uzumaki crest on the back and began to walk towards the meeting room. As he was walking through the halls of the circular building he saw his good friend and advisor Nara Shikamaru.

"What could this troublesome meeting be about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked.

"I'm going to wait for Sakura and Granny before I explain it to you," Sakura being his other advisor needed to be there to hear of his explanation for the meeting. "Might as well light a cigarette because you're going to need it."

The legendary Konoha Lazy Ass Ninja sighed. He took out a cigarette and began to light it. As he lit it he thought, "Now I understand why Asuma-sensei liked these so much."

* * *

"NARUTO! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" Sakura began to chase Naruto around the room. "Remember what happened last time Konoha started doing things in secret! The whole Uchiha clan was wiped out! And don't forget the old Root when Danzo nearly killed Tsunade-sama!"

"She was fine, you saved her anyway," said Naruto calmly.

Sakura looking extremely frustrated said, "What if I hadn't of been there? It's not like _anyone_ could have handled Danzo and his goons!"

"I would have been fine Sakura, calm down!" Sakura sat down and gathered her thoughts as her teacher had ordered of her. "It was my idea, you can't blame Naruto. I was just looking for his thoughts and support on the issue, not exactly sure why, he's not that bright, but he was at that time one of the village's strongest and most successful shinobi."

Shikamaru squirmed his way into the heated conversation and put in his two cents, "I don't see what the big problem is to tell you the truth. As long as Godaime-san and Naruto oversaw the whole program and handpicked the shinobi and teachers, there's no reason to have any distrust towards the program. However, I'm not sure how the clan heads will feel about this all being done in secret. I understand that it was a decision that was made very quickly and for the good of the village but ever since the truth about the Uchiha massacre was leaked out, everyone has had a sense of distrust towards decisions made behind closed doors." Naruto looked at Shikamaru as if he were waiting for a solution, "There really is nothing you can do but introduce this to them in a very well-thought out manner and hope that there isn't too many objections. The best case scenario would be that all the clan heads are ok with the situation and it all goes well politically. Worst case scenario, no one agrees with it and there is a revolt and they attempt to overthrow you in anger. However, that situation is extremely improbable. What will most likely happen is majority of them accept it but aren't happy about it and these shinobi in the program are accepted into the village with open arms. There will be those who have their nose up high and reject them but in time they will be accepted."

"I see, well now that we are all on the same page…wait a second where is everyo-," Naruto was cut off by the arrival of Hyuuga Hiashi. The man had aged gracefully. His hair was as long as ever, his white eyes as penetrating as ever.

"Hokage-san," he bowed.

"There is no need for you to bow to me Hiashi-san, if anything I must bow to you," Naruto in turn, bowed.

"If you don't mind, I brought Hanabi along. Hinata having relieved the position as heir to the clan to her in the last few months, I assumed that any matters which affect our clan are of importance to her too," said Hiashi not caring whether or not Naruto approved or not.

"Of course not Hiashi-san," replied Naruto trying to be as kind as he could be to his hopefully, future father-in-law.

"Hanabi come in," announced Hiashi.

Hanabi entered with the same objective presence as her father. She was the complete opposite of Hinata. She had a domineering presence, a terse tone, and the same long dark hair much like her father. It was surprising that this was Konohamaru's love interest.

"Hello Hanabi-kun," said Naruto motioning her in.

"Hokage-san ," she bowed.

Soon after the Hyuuga arrived, Aburame Shibi and Inuzuka Tsume both arrived together, talking about their children and Kiba's recent acceptance into the ANBU. Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Choza, and Yamanaka Inoichi all arrived together. Shikaku had walked over to Shikamaru and greeted him.

Representing the Sarutobi clan, Konohamaru and Yuhi Kurenai arrived. Kurenai had never formally accepted the name of Sarutobi due to Asuma's death, but her daughter, Sarutobi Yomiko, bore the respected name as her father. Konohamaru was a direct descendant of Sarutobi lineage. He came over to Naruto and attempted to show him his new '_Sexy Jutsu'_ but Naruto reprimanded him and reminded him that this was not the place to show him such a jutsu and that he could show it to him sometime over ramen.

One of the final clan heads arrived next, Uchiha Sasuke. The once missing-nin of Konoha, bearer of the Mangekyo Sharingan, and captain of the entire ANBU division, entered the room with a strong aura around him. Sakura ran up to him giving him a peck on the lips and they continued to their seats.

"Dobe, can we get this meeting started, it's been 10 minutes already," said Sasuke after having waited quite a while.

"We're waiting for one more person, he can never be anywhere on time, you of all people should know that Sasuke," replied Naruto.

With perfect timing, Hatake Kakashi walked into the room.

"Sorry I'm late, an old lady needed help crossing the busy marketplace and-," he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Whatever you say Kakashi-sama," He rolled his eyes. "Let's get this meeting started shall we?" Naruto took a deep breath and prepared to present his case to the room of legendary shinobi.

* * *

**Glossary:**

_Dojutsu- Genetic Ninja abilities utilizing the eyes enabling them to perceive chakra in one way or another. Ex: Byakugan, Sharingan, Kagegan(_Featured in _New Blood. _The ability to hop in and out of one's shadow, a trait of the Hattori clan_), Rinengan_

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I worked real hard on it! It's not too long and sorry for cutting the chapter off right as the meeting was going to begin but I needed to leave some suspense. Gikaru is pretty much the main character of the story. His pupils, Inokuza, Yokama, and Takeru will most likely be introduced next chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to post it later tonight or tomorrow. Don't forget to review. Your thoughts matter!


	3. A Lost Shinobi

**Chapter 2:**

**A/N: **Welcome to the second chapter! I've been working endlessly to pump these chapters out quickly. However, there are barely no reviews so I think I might take a little more of a break between chapters. If I start seeing more reviews I might pump out the chapters faster. What the reviews do is let me know how you guys feel about the story and if you guys like the direction I'm taking it in. it can also be used to point out any errors or discrepancies you see. I can take constructive criticism!

Anyway about the chapter! In this chapter the meeting finally begins. Gikaru meets the clan heads and the other three main characters are introduced! Woo hoo, exciting! Anyway here it is, ENJOY!

* * *

Naruto was standing in front of the most revered shinobi in Konoha. Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja; Hyuuga Hiashi, a legend among his clan and the village; the first generation Ino-Shika-Cho, an infamous trio and one of the most successful teams to ever serve Konoha; Even Shikamaru, the most intelligent ninja in all the Leaf. It felt somewhat ironic that at one point, when he was younger, he looked at these people and hoped that one day he could amount to even half as much as these people did, that he could have one chance at getting their attention, or even earning their acceptance. Now, he was the Rokudaime Hokage, the highest possible position that can be held in any village, and he had managed to hide something from all the people he once hoped to get a little bit of attention from. At this moment, at this meeting, all eyes were on him. They were eager to hear what he had to say and whether they liked it or not, these people would have to listen to him.

He took a deep breath and thought how he would explain to these people that he had hidden away more than a dozen, maybe two dozen, shinobi underneath Konoha and trained them to become killing machines.

For some, their families just thought they were away on a long term mission and hoped that they would return sometime soon. Other families had loved ones that just never came back. They were presumed dead, missing, or for some, suspected that the village had contributed to their disappearances. Investigations done by families and public officials all led to dead ends. Tsunade made sure that there were no ends left untied and that the trail to the shinobi was untraceable. It may be seen as cruel and inhumane to some but it was for the greater good, for the good of the village.

A few of the families actually knew that their children were off to join a secret 'organization' within Konoha, those were the families that understood. They understood that this was an opportunity for their loved one to shine, learn, and serve their village all at the same time. It was an opportunity many wished they could come across their whole lifetime.

Yamanaka Inoichi had family members who had notified him that their child, Inokuza, was exceptionally advanced at their clan's jutsu. Inoichi, being known as the clan's most adept jutsu user, took Inokuza under his wing.

Inokuza reached the age of 11 and Inoichi realized that Inokuza needed more time devoted to him to reach his full potential. Being too preoccupied with tending to his store, being a jounin, and taking care of clan matters, he approached Tsunade about if some sort of special arrangement could be made to train him.

Tsunade had already been trying to organize the reconstruction of Root but was coming up short when trying to find someone to head the program. If she took an active shinobi out of commission to head the program, people would become suspicious, there would be too many questions.

That's when she approached Naruto for advice. Naruto had become her closest friend and respected colleague. After the deaths of many of her closest friends, she found refuge with Naruto.

Naruto tended to have a different point of view on matters. However, with him it would be a hit or miss. Either his opinion was completely irrelevant and had no value, or what he said opened many doors.

After consulting him, she learned that Naruto knew someone. Apparently during his travels Naruto had met a mysterious shinobi. He had no known family, no recollection of his past, or even a stable home. He had awaken one day in the forest, lost and injured and while on an assassination mission, Naruto had found him.

* * *

Gikaru for the first time in over a year was leaving Root Headquarters. It was time for him to meet the strongest shinobi in Konoha and describe the program he had been running for the last year. As he walked he began to recollect the day Naruto had found him.

_His eyes were burning, his forehead was bleeding and he could barely feel his legs. Where was he? Why was he in a forest? He couldn't remember how he had gotten here, why he was injured, and most of all, why did no one save him? He tried to stand up but immediately fell back on to his stomach. _

_He heard a rustling in the trees above him. Someone was coming, he had to take cover. He felt around on his holster and found a kunai. He barely had any chakra and he was practically immobile. _

_A blond haired man with blue eyes as bright as the sky and roughly in his mid twenties dropped down from a tree across from him. He didn't seem dangerous, if anything he seemed concerned. He started to walk towards him._

"_Stand back!" yelled Gikaru. His instincts to preserve himself had kicked in. His eyes began to burn. "AHHHHHHHHHHH," he screamed, putting his hands over his eyes._

"_I'm here to help you, it's going to be okay," the man said comfortingly. His voice was soothing. He looked up at the man .The forehead protector he was wearing gleamed in the sunlight. He was a leaf ninja. "I'll take you somewhere safe."_

_All of a sudden the man's hand was on the back of his neck and everything went black._

Naruto had saved him. He owed the man his life. Naruto approached him years later after saving him, asking to come to his village and become a Konoha shinobi. Once he arrived he met the Godaime Hokage.

She asked him his age. He responded saying that he assumed he was in his early twenties. She then asked what his skills were.

All he knew was that he could kill. That was the only thing he could remember. He recalled that his skills were unparralled. He had friends at one point. All he could remember was words though. "_Wow, that's amazing," "Those eyes, they give you such strength," "Please…don't kill me."_

Then she asked him about his eyes. It was apparent that there was something special about them. It was not every day that you saw someone with yellow eyes. He told her that he could see the wind. He could see the chakra that flowed in the air, and he could control it. He could also become one with it. He could jump on the currents and jump off at will. It was like flying, effortlessly.

She then asked him if he were interested in being a teacher. He was unsure but she promised him food, a salary, and most importantly, a home. He accepted and that's when he became the leader of a program she called, Root.

* * *

"I've brought you all here today to inform you all something which has been going on in Konoha over the last year or so. About a year ago, Tsunade foresaw a time of darkness for the village. The 4th Great Shinobi War was imminent and Konoha was digging itself in a hole. There were more and more shinobi dying out in the field, less and less missions coming in and we needed to find a way to keep quality shinobi alive. Tsunade thought and thought, each idea seemed worse than the other, until one day she figured it out. She would rebuild Root, under her watchful eye," A silence overcame the room. People were looking at each other in shock, others waiting to find out the details. Naruto waited for any immediate objections.

"Continue…" announced the Hyuuga Elder.

"And so she set out to find someone to lead the program. Doubling as Hokage and leader of Root would be impossible for her to do and taking an active shinobi off duty to head the program would raise suspicions and decrease productivity. In an attempt to keep a social and political backlash from occurring, she kept the program a secret except to a select few, which included me. She consulted me about how she was concerned, whether or not it was a good idea and that this was the only way she could think of to train extremely successful and productive shinobi without interrupting affairs going on outside the program. It was for the good of the village that she kept it secret and asked of me if I knew of anyone that could manage the program," Naruto heard footsteps approaching the doorway.

"And so I told her of a man I had saved years back on my way back from an assassination mission in Iwagakure no sato. The first thing I noticed about this man was his desire to live. He was near death, bleeding, immobile, but he still managed to raise his arm against me thinking I was a foe. However, other than his will I noticed something else about this man, his eyes. At first it seemed he possessed the Byakugan, but when I looked closer, his eyes weren't white but they were yellow. His eyes were pulsating heavily and he was holding them, screaming in pain. I later learned he was the container of the Kazegan."

Everyone looked at each other in amazement. Another dojutsu? To everyone, there only existed 4 legendary dojutsu, but now a fifth? Let alone the container has been residing in the village for the last year and they had not known.

"What exactly became of this man Naruto?" said Sasuke, breaking the silence.

"I took him to the nearest hospital and had him treated. After helping him find somewhere to stay, he continued to live his life in a secluded area in the Land of Fire, barely managing to make ends meet. About a year ago, I invited him to join our village and lead the Root program. For the last year he has been residing in Root Headquarters, training some of our village's most talented shinobi."

Inoichi raised his hand and began to speak, "I have met the man myself, and I assure you all that he is nothing but trustworthy. I have entrusted to his care, a member of my own clan to be trained and taught by his program."

"Would it by any chance be that Inokuza kid you were training for quite a bit Inoichi," asked Akimichi Choza.

"I remember that kid, he was pretty damn talented. Now that I think of it, I haven't seen that kid around," Shikaku noted.

"Yes my friends, it was him. I have been visiting them once every two weeks to check up on the program's progress and acting as the Hokage's personal liaison between the program and the village."

"Well if my friend here trusts him, then I'm going to have to side with him. I personally see no problem with this. If the program has been under the careful watch of the Hokage himself the whole time, there's no chance of anything happening like in the past," said Choza.

"I've run the possibilities of this program through my head and nothing seems to check out poorly. The results can be nothing but positive and help the village out of this hole we're currently in. We need to have more active ninja with good success rates out in the field. Successful missions mean more money, more money means a thriving village," said Shikamaru.

"If Naruto supports it, so do I!" said Konohamaru enthusiastically, "Doesn't seem like it can hurt!" Kurenai nodded in agreement.

"I trust my son's judgment and have no objections towards any of this," announced Shikaku. Shikamaru looked at him and smirked.

"Heh, as long as they aren't taking my missions, I'm cool with it," said the laidback Inuzuka clan head.

"Whatever the dobe wants to do," said Sasuke in a monotone voice. Sakura slapped him on the back of his neck.

"I don't appreciate how this program was kept in secret," said Hyuuga Hiashi. "A decision like this should be consulted with the whole village before bringing a stranger in our ranks and putting our citizens in danger." Hanabi sat there listening to her father address the room.

"I agree with Hiashi," said Aburame Shibi. "However, my son tells me of how the ANBU are having trouble keeping up with all the missions they are being given. So if they can contribute to the ANBU and the results are positive, I might excuse the fact that this was done in secret."

"I have the utmost fate in Naruto. He was chosen Hokage for a reason. From when he was a mere genin to now, he has grown, become more mature, and much wiser. We've entrusted him with the title of Hokage because we trust in his decision making skills and this is one of the major decisions he has made while being Hokage," said Kakashi. He stood up and walked over to Naruto putting his hand on his shoulder. "I understand the circumstances both you and Tsunade were in when you made this decision, but the least you can do is let these people meet the guy."

"As you wish. Gikaru, come in," said Naruto.

Gikaru walked in to a room of glaring eyes. He had been waiting, listening to the objections and support of some of these people. He understood their concern and would reassure them of any worries.

He stood beside Naruto, wearing a standard ANBU outfit with a Konoha flak jacket and a custom Root tattoo in the shape of a tree root on his top right shoulder.

"Hello, my name is Gikaru." His blank yellow eyes were looking at everyone in the room.

* * *

The meeting was dismissed and Gikaru had introduced himself to the clan heads. They asked him questions, primarially the Hyuuga and Aburame Shibi, and he had answered them. The questions focused on the treatment of the shinobi, how the families of these shinobi would feel when they learned the truth and how he would handle it. He was prepared for every one of these questions. He replied by saying that he would deal with each situation accordingly and use Root protocol from there on out.

Gikaru started to walk back to the Root Headquarters. The entrance was located through a secret door on Hokage monument. Every time the shinobi of Root walked in and out of this building, they would be reminded who they have sworn to serve and protect. He made a special set of hand seals and slammed his hands to the wall. A passage way appeared in the wall and he entered.

He walked down the dark passageway until he reached the main hall. Illuminated by lights on all sides, there were several doors each about 3 feet apart from each other all around the circular room. He took the top left door which led to the living quarters of the ninja.

He walked until he reached room 13 and knocked. A boy, about the age of 12 came to the door. He had bandages wrapped around the top of his forehead and covered most of his skull. The bandages wrapped around his left eye and ended where his cheek bone began. His long, silky blonde hair hung out the back of his bandages and his blue eyes shimmered on his tawny skin.

"Gikaru-sama," Yamanaka Inokuza bowed.

"Inokuza-san, come with me," replied Gikaru. Inokuza ran back into his quarters and grabbed his equipment pouch and left the room with Gikaru.

"How did the meeting go sensei?" Inokuza asked.

"Fine. Inoichi was there."

"How was he?" wondered Inokuza.

"He seemed well; he was one of the many to surprisingly support the program."

"Are we gathering the others?"

"Only Takeru and Yokama."

They continued to walk down the long hallway and reached room 19. Gikaru knocked. A beautiful brunette girl with golden brown skin and green eyes answered the door. She wore a tight yellow shirt which was v-cut down her cleavage and a matching yellow skirt. She wore a shinobi shirt under her other shirt to cover herself up.

"Yokama-chan, gather your things and come with me," ordered Gikaru.

"Hai," replied Yokama.

As Yokama got her things together, Gikaru turned around and knocked on the door to room 20. A boy about the same height as Inokuza answered the door.

"Gikaru-sensei," he bowed.

"Gather your things, your teammates and I are taking leaving the compound," said Gikaru.

"Hai," replied Takeru. Gikaru watched the boy with spiky black hair and hazel eyes grab a white shinobi garment and pull it over his bare chest. It had a red medic symbol on the back. He grabbed his gloves which were cut off at the fingers and ran out the door to meet his teammates.

They met in the hallway and began to walk back towards the entrance.

"Might I ask sensei, where are going?" asked Yokama.

"I'm taking you guys to your genin exam."

The three young shinobi followed behind their sensei with determined looks on their faces. They knew why they were chosen. They were the program's most advanced pupils, students to the leader himself. They were going to show the shinobi of Konoha what being a member of Root had taught them.

* * *

**A/N: **How'd you guys like it? This was more of a background chapter. Theres going to be lots of action next chapter. Your gonna see some old friends from New Blood! In this chapter I wanted to get in as much information as possible about some of the main characters as possible(mainly Inokuza and Gikaru). If you guys have any unanswered questions you'd like for me to address in the story or privately, don't be afraid to _**review**_. Also to everyone, read Zuki-chan's newest fanfic, it's really something everyone should read. The link to it is in my profile! Wooo hooo everyone I bet you can't wait till the next chapter and dont forget to

_**REVIEW**_


	4. Team Gikaru

**Chapter 3:**

**A/N: **Hello there everyone, welcome back to the newest chapter of _Root: The Kazegan._ I've kept an eye on the amount of hits we've gotten over the last few days and its more than halfway to a thousand hits! However, there are barely any reviews! I really want to know how you guys, the readers, feel about the story. I enjoy constructive criticism! Don't be afraid to review! You don't even have to log in!

In terms of the story, the plot is on the move! Everyone of the three new characters introduced last chapters **battle!** That's exciting ain't it! Also, if anyone has any questions about the plot or they just plain out don't understand whats going on, don't be afraid to ask me in a review or a PM! I'm here to share my work with you guys and help you guys enjoy it to the fullest!

Don't want to keep you guys waiting so long so here it is, the third installment of _Root: The Kazegan_!

* * *

Team Gikaru arrived at Training Ground 4. Gikaru ordered them to stretch and prepare for their test. He notified them that he was not going to be the one administering their test and that the Hokage would hand pick the test administrator.

As they waited, each member of the team took it upon themselves to prepare themselves each in their own way. Inokuza had already laid down on the grass looking up at the sky, Yokama sat with her legs folded, focusing her chakra and Takeru took out a few bandages and began wrapping his arms. Seeing his students taking this as an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, Gikaru also laid down. It had been a long day after all.

The Sun had already gone down and the Moon was gleaming in the dark abyss of space. He realized it was a full Moon. Now that he thought of it, he really hadn't seen a moon, let alone a full moon in quite a long time. Things got kind of lonely down in Headquarters. He barely ever got out of there except for when he really couldn't stand it anymore. Maybe he'd grown accustomed to the lack of nature.

Gikaru entered deep thought. He felt compelled to look up to the sky looking for guidance. _Accept my students Konoha; don't make them suffer for something that isn't their fault._

Suddenly he was knocked out of his trance, four figures jumped down from a nearby tree. The four members of Root turned their heads to see who had joined them.

"Who goes there," declared Gikaru. He slid his foot around and posted his arm behind his back, preparing for a fight.

"Calm down there, it's Nara Shikamaru," replied a shadowy figure. He walked into the light of the Moon and Gikaru recognized him from the meeting earlier. Behind Nara there were three shinobi, one resembled who had paper white hair, the other a girl who had an extremely strong resemblance to Yuhi Kurenai, but the third child barely looked like he was a shinobi at all.

"Who are they?" asked Gikaru as he pointed to three more shadowy figures as they emerged from the shadows.

"My students. This white haired kid here, he's Hatake Kotaro," said Shikamaru as he pointed to Kotaro.

"Yo," said Kotaro in a relaxed voice.

"This girl right here, she's Sarutobi Yomiko," Shikamaru then pointed to the young girl on his team.

"I can introduce myself, thank you very much!" said Yomiko in a snotty tone. "Hi, I'm Sarutobi Yomiko, daughter of the great Sarutobi Asuma and granddaughter of the Sandaime Hokage!"

"Thanks for such a thorough introduction kid," Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Oh excuse me did I bore the Legendary Lazy Ass Shinobi? What a surprise!" retorted Yomiko. She stomped her foot and turned her back to Nara.

"I'm Ishida Naomasa, it's a pleasure to meet you Gikaru-sama," he bowed. "If you want, most of my friends call me Nao for short."

"I'll remember that!" shouted Yokama. "Hi, I'm Aomori Yokama, nice to meet you Nao!" She had a gleam her teammates had never seen from her before. A little too enthusiastic for their liking.

She made her way towards Nao but Shikamaru stopped her before she could get near him.

"They're your genin test, we wouldn't want you getting too acquainted to the shinobi who decide your fate as genin," said Shikamaru. He had a slight grin on his face. "My team is considered to be in the top percentile of their year and the Hokage decided that there was no better team to test your team's abilities than my team here."

"Well, you haven't met my students then Nara. They're not exactly average shinobi." Gikaru had the utmost confidence in his pupils. He knew there were no genin that could even compete with their skill level. "My students will have no problem handling a few genin Nara."

"I'd hate to crack your bubble but they're chunin," Shikamaru laughed.

"Well, that's a little bit more fun," Gikaru seemed interested.

"Wait! Were only being tested to become Genin?" Takeru seemed extremely confused. "Doesn't our training over the last year amount for anything?"

"Of course it does," Shikamaru replied. "You're a few steps ahead of the game with the skills you guys learned while in Root, that tattoo proves it."

He was pointing out the root shaped tattoo on Takeru's forearm. Takeru looked at him with a look of distrust and finished wrapping the remaining bandages he had around his arm. He didn't know whether or not this Nara guy was on his side or not.

"Can we get this started, I'm getting tired," added Inokuza.

"As you wish," answered Shikamaru. "You guys have been matched up according to the skills you guys posses. Your opponent has been paired in best regard to one another's abilities. This was done on purpose to compare the training of Root shinobi to that of normal academy trained shinobi. If I see that your skill is adept, the Hokage has given me the power to give you guys these."

He held up three Konoha forehead protectors. They were brand new and Team Gikaru knew that they were meant to wear them.

"The first match will be Takeru against Nao."

* * *

Takeru walked over to one end of the Training Ground. What could this kid's techniques be like? He seemed pretty agile; maybe he was a taijutsu specialist. No, that couldn't be it. Taijutsu specialists didn't usually have newly healed skin near the edge of their mouths. He must be used to using fire techniques.

While in Root, Takeru had been under the apprenticeship of the Hokage for a short time. She taught him little tips and tricks to medical jutsu and some key strategies to being a medic-nin. Analyze your opponent prior to the battle. Take note of any physical markers of his/her jutsu or fighting style. Read your opponents movements. Be able to stand your own in a close range battle. If something were to happen to your teammates, you will need to be able to protect yourself. And most important of all, never get hurt. You surviving determines the success rate of your team's mission.

If he wanted to prove to this Nara guy that he had what it takes to be a genin, he'd have to use everything Tsunade had taught him.

* * *

"You ready over there!?" yelled Nao from across the field.

Takeru immediately took off. He had no time to waste. If he were to win this battle, he'd have to take his opponent by surprise. It didn't help that he was already at a disadvantage by being a medic-nin, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Naomasa suddenly split into three. _The Shadow Clone Jutsu…_

This was going to be a little more difficult. Now he had to deal with three Naos. As if one weren't enough. Out of the corner of his eye, Takeru saw one of the Naos forming a few hand signs sluggishly. _Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger…A Fire Release technique…_

This kid's seals were slow, definitely not the speed at which a chunin should be performing at. Either way he knew what was coming and he had to get out of the way.

"_Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!" _screamed Nao

_I guess it's time to take to the Earth_. Takeru immediately took to the ground using his headhunter jutsu. He popped up underneath one of the Naos and slashed its ankles. '_Poof.' It was a clone._

"_Fire Release: Summoning Technique!_" declared Nao. A bright flaming bird erupted from Nao's mouth. It began to fly around Nao's body, gaining speed and volume. Once it had reached Nao's shoulder height, it took off in Takeru's direction.

He couldn't use the same headhunter trick again could he? No. His opponent would probably be prepared. He just needed to wait for the bird to come to him. It would take perfect timing but he could do it. _1, 2, 3…Jump!_

Takeru flew through the air spinning as he went and dashed midair towards Nao with a kunai in his right hand.

He saw that Nao was watching the flaming bird that had kept on flying and in confusion, crashed into the ground, bursting into a sea of flames. Nao refocused himself, withdrew a few shuriken from his holster and launched them at the flying Takeru.

"_Substitution Jutsu," _screamed Takeru. He appeared behind Nao, replacing his body with a log, and attempted to slash the real Nao across his back, but he had already done a substitution of his own with his clone.

"I guess I'm just going to have to take you on head to head then bro. You seem to have the advantage over me in the long range, pretty impressive." Takeru acknowledged Nao's skill but he knew he could beat him. He had to use something Tsunade had taught him to activate. She hadn't used the technique much in her fighting styles but she was adept in its use.

He performed a few hand seals and suddenly his hands started glowing. "_Chakra Scalpel Technique!"_

"A medic-nin I see, pretty cool, haven't fought one of you before." Nao smiled brightly. However his smile didn't last long, he was once again performing a set of hand seals, this time while he was charging towards Takeru.

Nao leaped into the air and announced his jutsu, "_Fire Release: Flame Flower!"_

Three giant bullets of fire were coming down towards Takeru like meteors. He had to think fast! Takeru immediately dashed to the right.

One of the fireballs hit the ground.

_To the left. _He threw his body to the left and managed to avoid the second fireball as he hit the ground sliding.

_The third one._ Crap, there was nothing he could do. Or he could use a trick he used earlier!

"_Headhunter Jutsu!"_yelled Takeru.

He began digging into the ground.

_Safety._

All of a sudden, the heat underground greatly increased. From all sides he could feel flames incoming-The kid had filled the holes he left with fire!

Takeru put a burst of chakra into his jutsu and leapt out of the ground. He was surprisingly parallel to Nao's legs and took a swipe at his ankle with his chakra scalpel.

Nao wasn't able to dodge it, his reflexes weren't that quick.

"Gotchya!" Takeru had gotten the first official hit in. He then took advantage of the fact that Nao was kneeling on the ground to do a spinning kick across Nao's face. Nao went flying, skidding about 5 feet across the ground before coming to a stop.

Nao tried his best to recover but Takeru was already on his tail.

Nao then once again yelled the same technique, "_Shadow Clone Jutsu!"_

3 more copies of Nao had appeared in place of where the original Nao once stood. Takeru took a swipe at one clones chest, causing him to disappear, and was able to dodge another clone's punch but he had forgotten about the third clone!

Square in the back of his head, Takeru felt two fists making dead on impact with the back of his skull. He was suddenly eating dirt. Feeling a little light headed he tried to look up but felt an axe kick to the back as the real Nao kicked his ribs.

_Shit. _He was done.

"Do you give up?" asked Nao with a sense of cockiness in his voice.

"Yes..," replied Takeru grudgingly.

This kid Nao had a massive chakra reserve for someone his age, definitely something Takeru didn't calculate into his equation. His miscalculation might have cost him his title of genin.

* * *

"I'm next!" shouted Yomiko as she ran to the same spot Nao had begun.

"She's your opponent Yokama," shouted Shikamaru from the other end of the field.

This girl sure seemed overconfident. Yokama would have to teach her a lesson.

She made her way to the same spot Takeru had taken his starting position. She knew this fight would determine her future as a shinobi.

She turned around to see how Takeru was doing. He had a few bruises, nothing too bad. He was already tending to the injuries himself. That Nao kid definitely didn't go easy on him, she couldn't underestimate her opponent the same way Takeru did.

"Are you ready yet, I'm tired of waiting!" shouted the Sarutobi girl from the other end.

Yokama turned around to face Yomiko. Yokama's expression had changed. The kind, respectful girl she was outside of battle was a polar opposite to her in a battle.

"Don't think cause you can give me a dirty look means I'm going to be scared of you!" yelled Yomiko.

"Don't worry, I don't need you to be scared of me, I'll make you fear me," said Yokama as she glared towards the young Sarutobi. "Hai!" The battle had begun.

Yokama put her hands into a seal which would help her focus her chakra. She focused her chakra through her eyes and sent it towards the Sarutobi girl who was already charging in her direction with a pair of trench knives in her hands which were glowing bright red.

She locked on to the unsuspecting girl and performed a set of hand seals.

"_Genjutsu: Haze,"_ she whispered under her breath.

An image of herself began charging at the Sarutobi girl. If the jutsu had been successful, the Sarutobi girl wouldn't be able to see her and would only see the image of herself that she created. However, just in case, she performed a complex set of hand seals.

"_Demonic Illusion: Double False Surroundings Technique,"_she said under her breath. With that jutsu, she placed a second illusion on top of her already active one just in case the target had already broken through the first one.

Yokama withdrew a short tanto from a sheath on her back and quickly caught up to her clone who was charging at her victim. Not losing focus of second illusion though, she maintained an illusion of two other copies of herself following the first image.

Sarutobi didn't take her eyes off of her illusionary copy.

From Sarutobi's blind spot, she launched her body at her, the tanto posted perpendicular to her arm. She was only about a foot away from the girl and she tried to slash her across the throat but she just flew right through the girl's body and tumbled onto the ground.

Had she been caught in a genjutsu herself? _Think, think, think…_

She wasn't a Yurei, she was a Sarutobi. There was no way she could have passed through her body. She must've been in the illusion before the fight began. No wonder that girl was so annoying, she was trying to break her concentration! That girl who she had seen taunting her and talking to her was just an illusion! She looked at the illusionary Yomiko; it was smiling at her and waving.

Now she really had to focus. She had to take a good look at her surroundings, find something that didn't belong. The girl couldn't be that advanced in genjutsu like an Uchiha who could completely cloak their presence, she had to be using a false surroundings technique. She had to use any information she had on her opponent to figure out her fighting style.

_Sarutobi Yomiko_. She was the daughter of Sarutobi Asuma, husband of...Yuhi Kurenai! She heard about the well known jonin. She was the village's genjutsu specialist; she enjoyed disguising herself as trees and flowers to deceive her opponents. The files they reviewed during classes in Root gave somewhat detailed descriptions of the jonin in Konoha. If she was this woman's daughter, she had to have a similar fighting style; children usually took after their parents.

_Trees and flowers. _There was a large oak tree beside an illusion of Gikaru-sensei. There wasn't a tree there before, she would know after all, she was standing there! She had to target that tree without the brat knowing. She just had to continue pretending she was caught in the illusion and when the timing was right, she'd make her move.

* * *

There was no way this girl who had no notable lineage, no skilled parents, could beat her, a Sarutobi.

This girl was still trying to fight the illusionary image she created of herself. A simple illusion had tricked this foolish girl. So much for Root being quality shinobi.

But what if she hadn't of caught her in the illusion right before the battle started? Who knew, who cared, she was winning. Maybe she could toy with her a bit; she always had that dragon she used when she was a genin.

* * *

She continued sparring with the illusionary girl, her hits phasing through the pseudo body each time. Seemingly out of nowhere, a giant green dragon emerged from the woods beside them, breathing fire and igniting the trees around it. The illusion almost felt real. Her body felt as if it were heating up from the flames. Yokama wasn't stupid though, dragons like those didn't just pop up out of nowhere.

However, this was her chance to scurry in fear of the dragon—or at least that's what Yomiko would think. She ran in the direction of the illusion of her sensei, screaming, "Help, Help!" She had to make it as believable as possible.

She withdrew three kunai from her holster and slid them between her fingers, ready to pretend to launch them at the illusionary dragon. She spun around, cranked back her arm and quickly spun around again, launching the three kunai at the tree where the Sarutobi girl was, she hoped.

* * *

Yokama may seem sweet, caring, and kind but Inokuza knew better. She was considered one of the most intelligent students in Root. Did that Sarutobi girl really think some simple illusions could fool her?

Apparently she did, that's why she now had three kunai dug deep in her upper right shoulder. Takeru was already tending to her injuries; his chakra had already returned quite a bit from his battle. He sure was something.

Takeru having lost his first match gave these fools a sense of confidence. They couldn't really expect a medic-nin to defeat a shinobi who relied on ninjutsu, he wasn't Tsunade-senpai. If it had been a close range fight the whole time, Takeru would have wrecked the kid but unfortunately that's not how things turned out.

There was only one person left for Inokuza to fight, Hatake Kotaro. He knew a lot about the kid's father and mother but not the kid himself. Using common sense, he assumed the kid would be pretty smart and have a knack for ninjutsu. He once glanced over Kotaro's file for his performance during the Chunin Exams; he had almost won the tournament. He would've won if it weren't for the assassination of the Raikage.

Kotaro was nothing he couldn't handle, the kid probably wasn't that great at genjutsu, his chakra control might be a little bit above level, but Inokuza was far ahead of anyone his age.

"Ready there Hatake? Inokuza asked.

"I guess," replied Hatake. He gave a slight sigh of boredom.

They took their positions, bowed, and began. Kotaro immediately jumped backwards landing against a tree and quickly hopped up into the branches. Inokuza couldn't see him. It was going to be almost impossible to get in Kotaro's mind if he couldn't see him.

Almost a split second later, there were two Kotaro's jumping down from the trees.

_Damn it. _He didn't know if there were more clones, which one was the real one, or what kind of jutsu this kid had.

One of the Kotaros' bit its finger as it was running and began forming a sequence of hand seals. It then suddenly stopped and slammed its hands on the ground.

"_Summoning Jutsu!" _announced Kotaro. Suddenly two identical snakes , about ten feet in length and a foot and a half in diameter, emerged from a cloud of smoke and began slithering their way in the direction of Inokuza.

He had nothing to be worried about, he put his hands together, focused his chakra and declared his jutsu,

"_Ninja Art: Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu!" _

He focused as much chakra as his bandages would allow him into the jutsu, resulting in the release of two confusion spirits.

Inokuza's chakra laced bandages made it possible to manipulate spirits which were constructed in his mind. Using the ability his bandages gave him, he could easily manipulate how and what exited and entered his body, making him a strong opponent for a genjutsu user and a fellow Yamanaka clan member.

Suddenly, the summoned snakes had halted their travel path towards Inokuza and began attacking each other. Inokuza would focus on finding the real Kotaro while the two snakes battled. Once one emerged victorious, he could use Kotaro's own summon against him.

He began running towards the Kotaro which had summoned the snakes. For some reason, he thought clones couldn't bleed so it had to be the real Kotaro.

Inokuza withdrew a few shuriken and launched them at Kotaro as a distraction. He needed just a few seconds to prepare his next jutsu but something unexpected happened. The shuriken hit Kotaro dead on and he 'poofed_' _into a cloud of smoke.

_How the hell did a clone summon those snakes? _He had to keep his focus on the other Kotaro though. It had already leaped towards Inokuza from behind but he was able to dodge it a split second before it him by bending backwards. As the Kotaro clone flew over him, he grabbed its ankle and began spinning the body around and released it, sending the body flying into a nearby tree and turning into a cloud of smoke.

Without any warning, Inokuza felt someone dragging him underground. _The Headhunter jutsu!_ He quickly substituted his body with a log he saw a few feet away and managed to escape in the nick of time.

It seemed to be the real Kotaro. His face mask covered his mouth but he could tell that the young shinobi was gritting his teeth in frustration.

"You really are making this troublesome," he said blankly.

"Did you expect it to be easy," Inokuza laughed.

Wasting no time, Kotaro had already begun another sequence of hand seals as he jumped out of the hole he was in. _It ended in a tiger seal, a fire jutsu._

"_Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"_ he yelled_. _Kotaro cupped his hands around his mouth and released a sea of flames all headed for Inokuza's position. It was as if a dragon had released the flames itself.

"Shit," said Inokuza under his breath.

He slammed his hands together into a chakra concentration seal and one of the summoned snakes quickly slithered its way over to Inokuza and wrapped itself around his entire body. The jutsu ended up making contact with the snake body around Inokuza, leaving him unharmed.

_That was a close one. _The snake released its grip and began to shed its skin. The snake served its purpose and seemed to be in pain. He could feel the snakes desire to dismiss itself. In return for the snake's help, Inokuza released his grip on the snake and it disappeared into a cloud of smoke. The other snake was lying on the ground, with bite marks which seemed to go deep inside its skin. It was of no use to him. He released his hold on it in an attempt to conserve as much chakra as possible.

Kotaro was now standing about 15 feet away from him, panting. The kid was out of breath, the flurry of jutsu he used must have taken a lot out of him.

"Tired little Hatake? Don't worry, I'll end this quick," shouted Inokuza.

Kotaro then began another sequence of complex seals. Inokuza wasted no time and began focusing his chakra into another special hand seal. He just needed three seconds. _Take your time Hatake._

* * *

Kotaro underestimated his opponent's agility and endurance. For a Yamanaka, he moved extremely well and had an exceptional control over his jutsu. Kotaro had to immobilize Inokuza before he tried anything serious. He was going to use a jutsu his mother had taught him. Once he immobilized Inokuza, he would be unable to transport his spirits' anywhere near his mind.

He began his long set of hand seals and finished just as Inokuza had finished his.

"_Many Hidden Shadow Snake Hands!_" he exclaimed. Inokuza had already announced his jutsu at the same time. The snakes began to fly from his sleeves and charge at Inokuza.

"_Mind Body Switch Jutsu!" _he heard Inokuza yell.

Inokuza took off in a sprint in the opposite direction of the snakes that were chasing him as he completed his jutsu. There was no way he could escape dozens of snakes and his jutsu was most likely canceled since he moved. He was pretty sure that the Yamanaka had to be still for their jutsu to operate.

Kotaro noticed something though; Inokuza hadn't released his hand seal! Before he could react he felt a strange feeling shrivel down his spine. Inokuza had trapped him! All he could think was how…_._

* * *

A single snake had bitten into his arm but it wasn't enough pain to distract him from his jutsu. He had already caught on to Kotaro's mind and managed to stop the snakes from traveling any farther. He stood stationary and kneeling on his right knee as he focused as much as he could on controlling Kotaro's body.

_I command you to stop snakes. Now begin to retract yourselves. Focus…Focus…Good. Now wrap yourself around my legs and slowly make your way up my body and contract my body as you make your way up my body. Good Snakes._

If someone had been looking at Inokuza's face, they could see the cocky grin he had acquired as he controlled Kotaro's mind.

* * *

"Well, that was an exceptional performance from your students Gikaru. And I really appreciate you treating to everyone's wounds Takeru," said Shikamaru, motioning his hand at Takeru.

Takeru bowed facing Shikamaru.

"Now as for my decision on whether or not you guys can advance to the rank of genin, Yokama and Inokuza, you obviously won your matches so your promotion is guaranteed. Congratulations." Shikamaru handed both Yokama and Inokuza their headbands.

Yokama wrapped hers around her waist and Inokuza wrapped his in a slanted position around his head, adjusting it the same way as his bandages did around his eye. They both turned to their teammate Takeru who had a disappointed look on his face. He had been the only one who didn't win his match.

"But sensei!" interrupted Nao. "Takeru had a great battle, he really was a challenge, I barely won!"

"Don't worry Nao, he wasn't being tested on his combat skills but his ability to recover from an injury and continue to heal his teammates. That was his true test. We didn't expect him to be able to go head-to-head with an adept ninjutsu user. If he had won, he would have exceeded all our standards tenfold but that's not the case. Here Takeru, you earned this." Shikamaru smiled.

Takeru took his headband and wrapped it around his right arm. He looked at it and smiled, he was actually a Konoha Genin.

"Thank you Shikamaru-sama," Takeru bowed.

"The best way for you to thank me is to serve our village to your fullest extent Takeru," Shikamaru replied. "As for you Gikaru, get ready cause now you're their sensei and trust me it isn't easy."

Gikaru laughed. Deep down though, all he could think about was how these kid's lives were in his hands. It was now his duty to protect them.

* * *

**Glossary:**

**Tanto-**Simply a small katana. The type the foundation uses are double-edged and has no tip. It is usually carried on the back of the users shoulder

* * *

**A/N:**Hope you guys liked it! My favorite battle to write was Inokuza's. I'm pretty sure he's my favorite character. I've been obsessed with the Yamanaka ever since Inoichi was introduced to the Pain invasion Arc in the manga. By the way, WHO ELSE IS EXCITED FOR THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN SIX TAILED NARUTO AND PAIN! I've been checking out a certain very popular Naruto forum manga coloring section and wow, theres some amazing work there from the latest chapter. I might post some of the pics I saved on my profile for you guys to see! Anyway don't forget to REVIEW! I really want to know how you guys like the story so far!


	5. Blossoming Flowers

**Chapter 4**:

****

A/N: Welcome to the latest installment of _Root: The Kazegan!_ In this chapter, the plot will begin to take off. Old enemies come back in this chapter and add themselves to the cast of characters. The character I brought back in this chapter will play a somewhat significant role in the upcoming Arc so make sure when you review, point out any clues you see.

Anyway, enjoy the latest chapter. Pairings are hinted strongly in this chapter.

P.S.: I almost forgot, my 2nd favorite character is introduced this chapter! Sayuri-chan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

Inokuza awoke to the sound of a loud knocking sound on his door. He looked at the clock beside his bed. It was already 11:30! He must've forgotten to set his clock last night. He was exhausted from his Genin exam.

"I'm coming, stop knocking," he said irritably.

He got up and went to grab a pair of shorts out of his dresser and slid them on. He walked to the door and opened it to be surprisingly greeted by Sayuri. He considered her to be the most beautiful girl in Root. The only person he'd ever met to even remotely rival her beauty was Yokama. She had dark, chocolate brown hair which went down her back and ended right before her waist. She had bangs which covered her forehead and stunning green eyes which stood out glowed against her golden brown skin. She wore a typical Konoha Anbu outfit but instead of a tanto on her back she had a small backpack which contained items for her jutsu. He had never had an attraction to any women like he did for Sayuri.

It also didn't help that she was a fearsome shinobi. Her family, the Hayashi clan, didn't directly associate themselves with Konoha but mainly with the Land of Fire. They resided in the forests surrounding Konoha in an attempt to stay out of political affairs between shinobi villages. After the Sound Organization infiltrated the land surrounding the Leaf Village, with nowhere else to go, they took haven in the village. The few members of her clan specialized in the ability to control plant-life. They would use roots, seeds, or the earth around them to activate their jutsu and would manipulate these plants to devastate opponents.

"Sayuri-chan! I'm sorry for yelling from my bed like that, I didn't know it was you!" he apologized. "What brings you here?"

"It's fine Inokuza-kun! I'm actually here to deliver a message from Gikaru-sensei," she responded with a bright smile. "He wants you to meet him in his office, your other two teammates are already there waiting for you."

"Crap, I'm never late for anything, they're going to be pissed!" said Inokuza in a frantic tone.

"It's probably not that big of deal. Anyway, my team and I are going to the arena to get some last minute training in. We're taking our Genin exam today. Supposedly the person administering our exam is Konoha's Green Beast, Rock Lee!" she seemed really excited. "Well, anyway, sorry for keeping you Inokuza-kun, I'll be on my way, see you later!"

Sayuri began to turn around and walk away, but something came over Inokuza and he felt compelled to say something to her.

"Hold on a second Sayuri-chan," he paused.

"Yeah?" she seemed confused.

"I was wondering…well since we can all leave the compound now and everything it'd be you know cool for us to get something to eat sometime. It's ok if you wouldn't want to, I understand," he felt his stomach turning inside out.

"That sounds great Inokuza-kun, just let me know when and we'll definitely go!"

"Really-I mean, sounds good!"

_Crap, that was embarrassing._

"I guess I'll see you around then Sayuri-chan!"

"Bye Ino-kun!"

Inokuza couldn't believe it! He might actually have his first date and it was with the most beautiful girl in Konoha. He couldn't wait to tell his teammates. He walked back into his room and suddenly realized that he was late for a meeting with his team. _Shit._ He quickly got his chakra bandages and began wrapping them around his head. He got his clothes and started putting them on as he ran out the door.

* * *

Takeru and Yokama were sitting in front of Gikaru's desk. Yokama was sitting with her hands on her chin and elbows on her knees, seemingly bored. Takeru slouched down into his chair and had fallen asleep. Gikaru was sitting behind his desk with his arms crossed and an agitated look on his face. His citrine eyes were focused on the door to his office. He wondered why Inokuza was so late, it wasn't like him.

The door suddenly flew open. Inokuza was running into the room as he put his clothes on. Gikaru realized his shirt was on backwards.

"Your shirt is on backwards baka," he said in a calm tone.

Inokuza looked down and realized that Gikaru was right. He pulled his arms into his shirt and twisted it around so that it was in the position it belonged.

"Sorry Sensei, I had forgotten to set my alarm clock last night. I was exhausted from the exam and-," he was interrupted by Gikaru.

"There are no excuses. Your teammates were here on time and they went through the exact same test you did. I told you last night before you lot went to your rooms that you had to be here at 10:30 the next morning. It is now 12:14 Inokuza. That means that you are 114 minutes late. Your punishment shall be to run 114 laps around the arena, 114 one-armed push-ups with each arm, and then, to finish off your punishment, you shall stand in a squatted position with your hands on your head for 114 minutes."

"But Sensei!"

"If you don't like it, I can arrange a much more grueling punishment for you," said Gikaru. His serious expression had not changed one bit.

"No, that will not be necessary Gikaru-sama." Inokuza replied.

"Wake up Takeru, Yokama," said Gikaru.

Takeru jumped out of his seat and stood in an upright position while Yokama simply lifted her head from her hands and looked at her sensei.

"You can sit down Takeru. You as well Inokuza." They sat. "The reason I called you three here this early was to let you know that the Hokage was invited us to lunch with his close friend, Hyuga Hinata. We were supposed to be there at noon. However, due to Inokuza's tardiness, we are currently more than 30 minutes behind schedule." Inokuza frowned. "Because of that, Inokuza, you will be the one to explain to the Hokage why were late. Understood?"

"Understood Sensei," replied Inokuza.

Gikaru got up and began to walk to the door. His team just stayed in place.

"Well what are you waiting for? You don't expect me to carry you guys do you?"

Team 4 stood up and followed their sensei to door and began their trip to meet the Hokage.

* * *

They arrived at a place called _Ichiraku Ramen._ According to Gikaru, it was the Hokage's favorite place to eat as a child and he felt that the best way to introduce them to Konoha was by bringing them to his favorite food joint.

The Hokage was already sitting at the stand when they arrived. He was sitting beside a very beautiful woman with long, violet hair. She had eyes similar to Gikaru-sensei's but they were white with a tint of purple. Gikaru approached them and greeted them.

"Hello Hokage-sama, Hinata-sama," he bowed. The three Genin mimicked their teacher.

"Gikaru-chan! You guys are late! What took you guys so long!? If you don't mind, Hinata and I already ordered some ramen, we couldn't wait any longer! I was starving!" The Hokage didn't seem too bothered, he acted as if he had done wrong by eating before they arrived."

"I-I'm sorry Gikaru-kun, Naruto just put the ramen in front of me and I couldn't-couldn't resist," Hinata frowned.

"We owe you the apology lady Hinata. Actually, Inokuza owes you both an apology. He _is_ the reason we're late," their sensei looked at Inokuza, expecting him to say something.

"I'm really sorry Hokage-sama and Hinata-sama. I had forgotten to set my alarm clock the night before and by the time I woke up we only have about half an hour to get here and I had to get dressed and-," the young Yamanaka was cut off by the Hokage.

"Don't sweat it kid. We're all late at one time or another. When I was a kid my sensei was always late, I'm used to it and you better believe it!" said Naruto compassionately.

"D-Don't worry Inokuza-kun, we were talking about some matters we had to attend to anyway; you guys gave us just enough time to finish what we were talking about," said Hinata, her cheeks nearly exploding from embarrassment. Naruto and her must have been talking about some private things for her to be so embarrassed by telling them that.

"Let's get down to the food already!" shouted the Rokudaime. "Teuchi-san, 7 more bowls of ramen, make them extra well, I got some good friends here!"

"But Naruto-kun, t-there's only six of us," muttered Hinata.

"I got 2 for myself, I love ramen!" replied Naruto.

As the six shinobi waited for their ramen, Naruto spurred up a conversation.

"So how do you guys like being out in the population," he asked the group.

"Well, we really haven't had much time in between last night and now. We got a lot of strange looks, probably because we haven't been seen before, but other than that it's really pleasant to be out in the fresh air again," said Yokama.

She seemed to be liking being out of Headquarters. The brunette would always complain to the group that she wanted to be out in the open more. Unbeknownst to Gikaru, she and Takeru would sneak out sometimes and scale the Hokage heads for fun during the witching hour. Yokama always beat Takeru; she considered it an extracurricular activity for them since she often mocked Takeru for lacking in the physical strength department.

Inokuza however, didn't bother putting himself in a situation where he would possibly be getting in trouble. He hated doing more work than he needed to. He wasn't lazy per say, he just didn't bother to do more than he had to do. Once he was done with his tasks, he would return to his quarters and rest. Sometimes, he'd pick up a copy of _Icha Icha Paradise_ that he'd find in the mess hall and read it or lounge around with some of the other ninja in the compound. Although, he found the books quite a bit more entertaining. Apparently, the series had been written by one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya.

In his classes during Root, the Sannin were another base that the instructors touched upon. They told us of Orochimaru's defection, Jiraiya's departure to return his friend to the village and Tsunade's slow decline into seclusion. They felt that knowing about the history of Konoha would prevent them from making the same mistakes shinobi of the village had made in the past. They also mentioned Hatake Sakumo, Hatake Kakashi's father. They told them that he had been shamed b y the village because he chose the life of a comrade instead of the mission's success. They taught us that your comrades sometimes meant more than the mission's completion. Keeping the bonds of your team close, in the long run, would have better results as a whole. However, they made sure that we understood that that was in no way an excuse for the failure of a mission. A failure was still a failure.

"Well after lunch, make sure to take advantage of the fact that you're already out and take a good look around the village. You might even run into some people you know," said the Hokage. "Ah look, the ramen is ready! Bring it over here before it gets cold!"

Teuchi, the owner of the ramen bar, brought over the bowls of ramen Naruto had ordered. They all dug in.

"Wow, this is really good," stated Takeru. "I'm definitely coming here in my off time!"

"I got you a new customer Teuchi-san!" Naruto laughed.

The owner smiled and brought them all some napkins. They thanked the man and continued eating their ramen. Yokama began thinking about that boy Nao she had met during her Genin exam. He sure was nice. She wanted to get to know him better. He seemed really kind, caring and he was even a great shinobi. That was definitely who Yokama wanted to get to know better.

As they ate they were interrupted by a large breasted shinobi dressed in all black running towards them and shouting at the Hokage. Aside from her dark clothing, she was wearing an odd pair of goggles. The Sun wasnt' that bright and it was pretty cloudy out; it was really strange for the girl to be wearing goggles.

"Naruto-sensei!" she ran over the Hokage, panting. "There's a strange man causing a large disturbance at the South gate. He demands to speak with you. The Anbu have already been dispatched under the command of Sasuke-sama."

Naruto got up out of his seat and put his hand on the woman's shoulder. Hinata also shifted her body so she could hear what was going on.

"What does he look like Hitomi?" asked Naruto.

"Well, this is going to sound weird, but he kind of looks like a shark," the girl said hesitantly.

"Thank you Hitomi, I think I know who it is. Go on ahead of me and tell the man that I will be there in a few minutes. I just have to pay for my ramen." Hitomi nodded and ran off in the direction of the South gate. "Hinata, do you mind fetching Sakura and asking her to meet me by the gate?" He looked at the Hyuga woman.

"Of course not Naruto-kun, I'll go right now," she turned around and began to leave but Naruto grabbed her hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek before leaving. They could tell that the Hyuga woman's face turned red.

"Would you guys like to come? I have a feeling this is going to be interesting," the Hokage gave them a reassuring smile. They all nodded in agreement. Naruto threw a small stack of money on the bar and thanked the man for the meal. Not even an hour outside the compound and there was already trouble.

* * *

When they arrived, there was a giant of a man standing at the gate entrance. On each one of his sides, there was an Anbu, ready to react to any of the man's movements. The man realized Naruto's arrival and acknowledged him.

"Well it's about time Naruto. Your goons here have been watching me as if I were trying to do something wrong," said the shark-like man.

Naruto motioned for the Anbu to back down.

"They're only doing their job Kisame. Remember the last time you were here, you tried to kidnap me," Naruto smirked.

"I think I'd have a little trouble doing that now don't ya think? And oh look who it is, it's the Uchiha," he was referring to Uchiha Sasuke who was walking up beside Naruto.

"Dobe, I'm a little confused as to why Kisame is here," stated the Uchiha emotionlessly.

"As hard as it is to admit, the teme is right. What brings you to Konoha Kisame?" asked Naruto.

"Well, for quite a while now I've been roaming villages all over the land looking for some entertainment. I took a quick stop at Kiri before I stopped by here actually, that kid Hozuki Suigetsu is Mizukage now, can you believe that?" Kisame seemed quite surprised.

"I'm aware Kisame, we did just finish fighting a war alongside Kiri, I would have to know the Mizukage to do that," responded Naruto.

"A war; where was I?!" Kisame was puzzled.

"Long story but I don't think this is the right place to tell it. Would you care to follow me to my office Kisame-san?" he held out his arm as an offer for Kisame to come with him.

"I think that would be a good idea kid, these people are lookin' at me like I'm some kind of beast," he chuckled.

As he walked by the Anbu who were surrounding him before he said to them, "You guys don't know how lucky you are that your Hokage came to your rescue your asses," Kisame smirked and followed Naruto. The Anbu scattered, most likely to tail Kisame and keep an eye on him in case he tried anything.

* * *

"I'm surprised you're handling this village so well kid," Naruto sensed a bit of sarcasm in Kisame's voice.

"It's not exactly easy to defend again Iwa, Kumo, and Oto at the same time you know," Naruto sounded agitated.

"Didn't mean to push your buttons or anything, take a breather, all that matters is that the village is still standing and that the Hokage is still alive," he tried to encourage Naruto.

Naruto suddenly stopped walking. He turned towards Kisame with a devilish look on his face. "Why are you really here Kisame? I don't have time to be dealing with your foolish mid-life crisis's. My village is in a very vulnerable state right now, many things are happening and I don't have any time to be wasting, let alone on you Kisame. It's not like you've been a great ally in the last 15 years," The former Akatsuki member was surprised to see how much the once loud-mouthed jinchuriki had grown.

"If you want to get serious boy, then I'll get serious," Kisame had changed his attitude to match Naruto's tone. "I was in Iwa seeing an old friend about some things and I heard of plans of an attack on Konoha."

"That's not news to me Kisame. Iwa suffered minimal losses during the War. They could counterattack anytime. I don't really know why they haven't yet; I've sent a few spies to Iwa in an attempt to get some information about a month ago. I haven't gotten a report in the last 2 weeks. Now that you remind me, something must be up." Naruto immediately changed his expression to one of worry.

"They're either in too deep or dead Naruto. Iwa isn't joking around this time around."

"What would be different this time around?" asked Naruto.

"They have the Yonbi and the Gobi."

Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of his head. It was one thing dealing with the shinobi of Iwa but now they were in possession of two tailed beasts.

* * *

**Glossary:**

Yonbi-Four Tailed Beast

Gobi-Five Tailed Beast

* * *

**A/N:** And so the main plot begins, the return of the Jinchuriki! Like I said before we have many hits but no reviews, we need to get some more reviews! Your feedback really matters! I want to know how the readers feel about the story and if they like the direction I'm taking the story in. Either that or if they just flat out don't understand what's going on!

Like I mentioned before, I'm going to be using the review section to determine a new plot twist in the story.

**Review  
**Gikaru will be leaving on a mission next chapter and Team 4 is going to need a temporary sensei! I'm going to let you guys decide who their temporary sensei is going to be. It can either be a character from New Blood or a Naruto character. However, when you put your opinion in, make sure that you consider how the person can be added into the plot. I repeat, you guys will be deciding who their sensei will be(Within reasonable parameters, if the winning shinobi is completely irrelevant to the story, then no it will not be that person and I will continue my way down the list to see who their sensei will be). So don't forget, in your next review, tell me who you want Team 4(Gikaru's team)'s sensei to be!

**Review**


	6. Eight Man Squad, Take Two!

**Chapter 5:**

**A/N: **Hey everyone, its been a while! I've actually been real busy with my real wife, that's why I haven't updated in a while. I'm going to try and update every Monday if not earlier. I'm glad we got a few more reviews. It's good to know people are reading and liking the story. I addressed some of the questions posed by **Zarannya** in his/her review. Naruto will be using Senjutsu in this story. He just didn't use it when he fought Gikaru because it wasn't necessary! We don't want him killing our main character do we!? I elaborated a bit on the question of the difference of Old ROOT and new ROOT in this chapter. I will definitely be going further into that subject in later chapters. We will also be seeing more old faces for sure, you'll just have to tag along and see!

Anyway here it is, I'm happy to present Chapter 5 of _Root: The Kazegan_!

* * *

"I don't think Naruto-sama will be back anytime soon; it's ok if you guys leave," said the large breasted woman from before.

"I think that would be wise," responded Gikaru. "Inokuza don't you have a punishment to be attending to?"

"Yes sensei," sighed Inokuza. _I thought he would forget._

"Get a head start and start running to headquarters. Once you're there start immediately," ordered Gikaru.

Inokuza bowed and began running in the direction of the Hokage heads.

"As for you guys, we've been slacking on some training so I think we're going to train with one of the other teams."

"It has been a while sensei, I'm down," nodded Takeru in agreement. Yokama also nodded in agreement.

"Nice to meet you Hijiri Hitomi, see you around," Gikaru began to walk away alongside his team. Hitomi bowed.

* * *

Hitomi thought for a second how strange that man's eyes were. _Why isn't he hiding them? _If she walked around like he did without her goggles, she would be considered a freak. People wouldn't stop pointing, staring, or making fun of her. She was a freak.

But, that guy didn't seem like he cared if people did so. If she was thinking about how strange his eyes were than other must be doing the same. Just the thought of her knowing that people would be talking about her gave her a small tingling feeling in her ear. Now that she thought of it, she didn't know the man's name. He was already walking away. She had to get his name; this was her chance to talk to someone who was like her!

"Wait!" she yelled. The Root shinobi all turned their heads towards her. The yellow eyed man sure was handsome. His eyes seemed like they were glaring deep into her soul.

"Yes?" he asked.

"You know my name but I don't know yours!"

"Gikaru."

_Gikaru._ She would get to know him better.

* * *

"How the hell did they get their hands on two bijuu!" yelled Naruto.

Kisame shrugged. "I don't have all the answers kid, I just know they have them. The Yonbi jinchuriki is some big red haired guy. He's bout six foot two and I haven't seen the Gobi guy but I hear he's pretty strong, has a knack for Genjutsu which is as good as any Uchiha and has a mastery over quite a few elements."

"The Yonbi allows mastery over lava release jutsu, I know that. However, the Gobi is more of a mystery to me. This guy having mastery over genjutsu seems to be connected to his bijuu. As for the elemental masteries, I heard tales of the Gobi allowing mastery over various elements but nothing has ever been confirmed," pondered Naruto.

"I faced the last Yonbi jinchuriki first hand, if it weren't for my chakra reserves, I would have been turned to shark bait," chuckled Kisame. "I don't remember who in Akatsuki recovered the Gobi but it defiantly wasn't me or Itachi.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in"

Through the door came Haruno Sakura, Konoha's Healing Blossom. "KISAME!?" She instantly lunged towards the former Akatsuki member. He quickly withdrew Samehada and placed it in between Sakura and himself.

"Sakura-chan! He's here to help us!" yelled Naruto.

"Back down little girl, I wouldn't want to hurt ya pretty little face. I'll shred your face down so thin that no medical ninjutsu can save your nice little skin."

"I'll snap that sword in half so quick you'll wish there was a medic who would heal you after I'm done with you!" she yelled.

"Alright! Alright! Guys we need to keep our heads in focus! Sakura it's fine, I let Kisame in!"

Sakura backed out of her fighting stance and crossed her arms as she turned her head away from Naruto.

"Hmph, I don't trust him Naruto," said Sakura stomping her foot.

"I'm the Hokage and if I trust him enough to let him in the village then it is fine Sakura," replied Naruto. "Now will both of you please sit down."

The two arguing shinobi sat down apprehensively. Neither of them trusted each other and were ready to respond to the other in a split second.

"We need to assemble a large reconnaissance team to Iwagakure within the next 36 hours Sakura. They are in possession of two bijuu; both sealed inside highly adept shinobi. We need to determine who we're going to send."

"What are the affinities of the bijuu?" asked Sakura. She had already taken out her note pad, ready to analyze any date given to her.

"The Yonbi jinchuriki will most likely be able to activate lava release ninjutsu. As for the Gobi we know he is a highly adept genjutsu user. We are also under the assumption that he has a mastery over quite a few elements if not all of them."

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Sakura seemed to have found her answers.

"There is definitely one person we have to have tag along and that's Yamato. His ability to neutralize jinchuriki is crucial to this mission. The chance of the team engaging in battle with the targets is extremely high so he is if anything, an obvious choice. As a counter to the Gobi's genjutsu, we can either send Sasuke or Yuhi Kurenai," said Sakura as Naruto interjected.

"Would sending both of them be wise?" asked Naruto.

"Well Sasuke is the head of ANBU so having him outside the village would not be wise. However, his battle expertise and his Sharingan are highly valuable during this mission. He is nearly immune to all types of genjutsu. Yuhi Kurenai does not harbor the Sharingan but for someone without any type of dojutsu, she is considered nothing more than a master illusionist. Her ability to break an illusion is almost on par with Sasuke so she would be the best alternative to Sasuke," responded Sakura.

"Alright, I'll send Yuhi Kurenai. I don't need all my best men out of the village at once. Who else?"

"Well I'm basing this much like the Eight Man Squad Tsunade-sama assembled to search for Sasuke. Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba would all be eligible to join this mission. All three of them are not necessary though. In my opinion, Hinata-chan and Kiba-kun would be sufficient. One of them alone account for the tracking aspect of the team but both of them together would mean anyone trying to hide just wouldn't be able to."

"Alright well Hinata and Kiba will serve as trackers for this mission, and Yamato and Kurenai will be counters to the bijuu. I'm also going to enlist Gikaru as a key addition to this team. They will need more muscle and Gikaru is well versed in all of the needed qualities in this team," stated Naruto.

"Well I'm going to nominate myself as the field medic for this team. I have a great knowledge of genjutsu, am an expert medic, and got the muscle part going for me. I'm perfect for this mission!" she winked at Naruto.

"If that was a request then your request is granted," laughed Naruto. "Yamamoto Miyuki will be accompanying you guys also. One medic will not be sufficient for a mission of this level Sakura. I also doubt that you're going to be sitting the background waiting for everyone to get hurt, you're going to try and kick some as too." He smiled.

"1..2..3..4..5..6..7. That's only 7 people Naruto. We should at least have enough people so that they can separate into 2 man squads if necessary," added Sakura. Naruto nodded.

"I agree, but who are we going to send with them?" wondered Naruto. He laid his chin on his desk and thought for a bit and then it hit him!

"Kisame! You said you needed some money, what better way to make some money and earn some respect for yourself than to help us with this mission! You are the one who captured the Yonbi the last time around!"

Kisame scratched his head. "How much we talkin' here kid?" Naruto smirked; he had his dream team ready.

* * *

"Well are you guys ready?" asked Gikaru. He didn't really care if his team was ready or not. They were sparring with their peers whether they liked it or not. His students nodded.

Gikaru was standing on one end of the arena with two-thirds of his team as one of his fellow Root instructors stood on the other side with his own team. They had just passed their genin exam with flying colors and now they were being put through a training exercise; they would be very tired.

Inokuza was on his 54th lap around the arena so far, having already completed his other tasks. His punishment was surely being a bitch. Gikaru secretly enjoyed watching his pupil suffer a tad bit. This would teach him to be on time and set an example for the other members of his program.

"Takeru, attack them," ordered Gikaru.

"What?" pondered Takeru, his eyes wide.

"There are no 'whats' when you're in the field Takeru. You do as you're told by your squad leader without question. No questions, no second thoughts, no emotion. Do as you're told. Now, go!" yelled Gikaru. He was not happy with how Takeru had responded. Had the last two days of them being out in the open already affected their thought process, their knowledge, everything they learned in Root?

* * *

After being scolded by Gikaru, Takeru immediately took off in direction of the opposite team. He didn't know who he was going to attack but he had to attack someone; that's what Gikaru told him to do.

_Tiger, Horse, Rabbit, Rat, Dog_. He finished his set of seals and activated his jutsu.

"_Chakra Scalpel Technique!"_

He was getting nearer to the opposing team and put his right hand out to his right and bent his left hand towards his own body in a defensive stance as he ran. He was about to engage the other team when a girl on the other team leaped into the air with her hand in her backpack. She took a handful of some sort of bean looking things from her bag and threw them down to the ground in all different directions.

Takeru dodged any of the bean-like items just in case they were dangerous upon contact. As the girl from the other team landed he lunged towards her. But, before he could reach the girl he felt a tug on his leg, it felt like a snake was crawling up his leg. He stopped running and turned to see what was grabbing his leg and it turned out to be a plant vine. He sliced the vine off his leg using his chakra scalpel and turned again to face his opponent.

The girl he was fighting had her hands in a hand seal he had never seen before. She seemed to be in deep concentration and all around her vines started erupting from the ground. The only possible explanation was that she was controlling them by having her hands in that seal. If he could possibly break the seal she had formed, the vines would stop moving and he could attack her.

"_Plant Release: Venus Flytrap Growth_" exclaimed his opponent. That jutsu didn't sound very pleasant. Barely a second later, three vines emerged from the ground stretching out towards Takeru and at the ends, monstrous Venus flytraps grew from the end of the vines with their mouths wide open.

Takeru stood in place waiting for one of the flytraps to get near enough for him to destroy it. He wouldn't be able to get all three but one less flytrap would be one less problem for him to worry about. He waited for the perfect moment, the exact moment. He could see that the girl was confused as to why he was just standing there.

_5 meters away_ _and moving fast_. Takeru gathered as much chakra as he could into his right chakra scalpel and right when the flytrap was going to engulf him he slid under the flytraps mouth and yelled,

"_Chakra Scalpel: Discharge!"_

All the chakra he had gathered into his scalpel had discharged right into the jaw of the monstrous plant's mouth which resulted in the entire head of the plant being ripped off the vine. Even though the destruction of one of the plant heads was a success, it was only a small part of the problem and he knew not to get distracted. He looked around for the other flytrap and saw that they were trying to corner him; coming from his left and right sides.

"_Earth Release: Earth Swim Jutsu"_ whispered Takeru as he took into the ground. He released his scalpels because trying to maintain two jutsu at once would be too costly. He'd have to attack this girl by surprise. However, this girl was a member of Root. She knew better than to stay stationary and wait for an oncoming attack.

"Fuck!" screamed Takeru. He felt a sudden rush of pain in his leg. It was one of the flytraps! It had gone underground and bitten his leg. He quickly performed a few hand seals.

"_Chakra Scalpel Technique," _he murmured.

Takeru's hands were now illuminated in a light green chakra. He took a swipe at the flytrap's head. He wasn't able to cut many tendons but he got as many as he could-enough for him to escape. He began swimming through the ground as fast he could. He heard rustling in the ground and knew he didn't have much time. He stopped shortly to tend to his wound. It was really deep, he needed to get it to stop bleeding and he'd worry about repairing the rest later. He needed to prove to Gikaru that he had what it takes to be a respected member of the program.

The vines were getting closer and he could hear something larger crashing through the rocks behind him; most likely a flytrap. He focused chakra into his legs and jumped straight out of the ground with his right hand leading the way.

Takeru emerged no more than 1 meter away from the girl he was fighting. She had a shocked look on her face when she saw him exit the ground. Her concentration was broken and she had inadvertently released her seal. Takeru took this opportunity to try and get a few hits in on the plant girl. He began running towards her and she was still just standing there-shocked. Takeru wondered why she wasn't doing anything but then she finally grasped a sense of reality and began to perform a set of hand seals. She wasn't going to be able to complete her jutsu in time, he was too close and when he was in range he would sever the ligaments in her hands making her incapable of performing hand seals and he would be declared the winner.

Suddenly, a chill went down Takeru's spine. He didn't know whether something had hit him or not. He was still looking at the girl and she still hadn't finished her jutsu; she was surprised by the fact that he wasn't moving, causing her to stop her jutsu.

"Stop Takeru, you've won. Don't hurt her," said a familiar voice, it sounded distant.

"What the hell are you thinking Inokuza?" screamed another familiar voice, it was his sensei. "Release your jutsu on Takeru immediately. How dare you interfere in a battle? You've been out of line lately and I will not stand for this." Gikaru was infuriated.

* * *

Inokuza was standing at a corner of the arena with his hand in his special hand seal. He had to protect Sayuri; she was about to get hurt.

Gikaru flickered to his side grabbing his grabs and throwing him on the ground.

"Does anyone else want to interfere with this fight? Be my guest, get your 5 seconds of satisfaction of doing a good deed and suffer the consequences later, go ahead," said Gikaru coldly.

"But sensei, sh-," Inokuza was interrupted by Gikaru.

"There are no 'buts' Inokuza. You let your emotions interfere with your judgment. Your little crush on the Hayashi girl has clouded your mind," said Gikaru to Inokuza. He then turned around and flickered to the center of the arena next to Takeru, who was now free of Inokuza's jutsu.

"What was the first thing your sensei's taught you when you were brought into this program? Don't let your emotions interfere with your judgment in a battle situation. When out in the field, decisions need to be made without any doubt, without any emotion. You need to focus on the mission's objective and nothing else. When you incorporate your feelings for someone or your own personal opinion, you're risking the success of the mission," he was now talking to everyone in the arena. "You lot aren't in this program to be like all the other shinobi in Konoha. The shinobi in this program are here so that they can produce guaranteed results. You are to make judgments in a split second without any _doubt._ When you let your feelings interfere," he looked at Inokuza. "You can mess up a whole mission."

"Gikaru-senpai!" yelled a voice from the doorway to the arena. A Root instructor emerged from the doorway. "There is a shinobi named Haruno Sakura at the entrance with an urgent message from the Hokage for you. She requires your presence immediately."

"Thank you, Mizuki. Please escort her to my office. I will be there shortly," he ordered.

Mizuki returned through the door in which he came to complete his task.

"This lecture is not over children, I shall be back. For now, return to your quarters and review your notes. Tomorrow you will all be writing me a 3 page paper on the morals of Root and how they help shinobi during a mission. Understood?" Gikaru asked the whole arena. "Thank Inokuza for your assignment everyone."

Gikaru made his way to the entryway as the rest of the shinobi in the room took the other door towards their quarters. Inokuza went over to Sayuri and knelt down beside her.

"I'm sorry Sayuri-chan. I didn't mean to get you in trouble," apologized Inokuza.

"You shouldn't have done that Inokuza-kun. I can handle myself believe it or not," she retorted.

"I know it's just...I didn't want to see him hurt you. Will you please forgive me?" Inokuza lowered his head.

"I appreciate you caring about my well-being but you showed poor judgment by doing that. Haven't you been paying attention the last year we've been here? Emotion in the battlefield only leads to failure," she was scolding him. "I need to think about this. I'll see you around Inokuza-kun." She made her way with the other shinobi towards their quarters. _Shit._ He messed up.

* * *

Gikaru walked into his office to find Haruno Sakura comfortably sitting in one of his chairs.

"I see you've made yourself at home," snorted Gikaru.

"Did you expect me to stand Gikaru? What's with the attitude?" asked the pink haired kunoichi. She crossed her arms as if he had offended her.

Gikaru made his way around behind his desk and sat. Now he had to deal with a troublesome woman. He settled his glaring eyes on the Hokage's assistant studying her bodying language.

"I'm sorry if I offended you Miss Haruno, but my students were giving me quite a bit of trouble and I had to reprimand them," he responded.

"I hope you're not this pleasant during our mission buddy," she said sarcastically. He wasn't aware of any mission and was surprised by her snotty statement.

"What mission are you talking about?"

"That's why I'm here. You are being sent on a reconnaissance mission in Iwagakure with me, Kisame, and five other Konoha jonin. We are to infiltrate the village and gather as much information on the _two_ jinchuriki residing in the village." Gikaru's eyes quickly widened.

"_Two_ jinchuriki? How the hell did they manage that?" he asked inquisitively.

"We don't know. That is why were assembling this team. That man who was at the village gate earlier-Kisame-gave us this information and we need to investigate immediately. You are to be packed and ready to go in the next hour. Be at the Hokage's office after you are done gathering what you need and we will be briefed with our mission objective and introduced to our fellow teammates. Got it?" she smiled.

"Got it."

* * *

Gikaru had his bag packed and was walking through the Hokage building halls. Now he had to worry about finding someone to serve as his team's sensei while he was gone. They were supposed to be starting missions soon and he wanted them to be out in the field already. But who could he trust with his team's lives. If anyone were to get hurt or killed during a mission he would be the only one to blame. Now he had the burden of burdening someone else with the guilt. What a troublesome situation.

He arrived at the Hokage's office and the door was already open. It seemed that everyone had already arrived and he was the last person they were waiting on.

"Hokage-sama," he bowed.

"Come in, come in Gikaru! We've been waiting for you," said Naruto.

"I apologize, I thought I was on time but apparently not," he replied.

Everyone else was looking at him strangely minus Kisame, Sakura, and the Hokage's girlfriend-Hyuga Hinata. There were many explanations for why these people would be looking at him this way. The most obvious would be his eyes. It wasn't everyday where you see a guy with bright yellow eyes walk into a room. Another possible explanation would be that most of these people had never seen him before. They were most likely wondering who this strange shinobi was and why he was there.

"Everyone, for those of you haven't met him formerly, this is Gikaru. He is the head instructor of the Root program and the last member of the Eight Man Squad," announced the Hokage.

"Nice to meet you all," Gikaru bowed once again.

"Hey there kid, welcome to the gang," said a dog-like shinobi who was sitting by the window petting an enormous dog.

The Hokage's girlfriend walked up to him and introduced herself, "I-I don't think I in-introduced myself formally Gikaru-kun but my name is Hyuga Hinata," she smiled and bowed and returned to Naruto's side, her violet hair trailing behind her.

"Hello, my name is Yamato, ANBU Captain, pleased to meet you," said a blank-faced shinobi sitting beside a girl dressed in a completely white uniform. Her sleeves covered her hands and she had a very serious expression.

"My name is Yamamoto Miyuki in case you wondering. There is no need to stare," said Miyuki bluntly. "I'm going to be one of the two medics on the team. Try not to get too hurt."

"Well I think you pretty much know everyone now Gikaru. Kurenai-san was at the last meeting you were at. She's the mother of Sarutobi Yomiko, the girl that Yokama fought her for her genin exam," stated Naruto.

"Your daughter is an exceptional fighter Kurenai-san. I commend her skill. She is more than worthy of the name Sarutobi."

"Thank you so much Gikaru. She told me your student was quite a challenge. Ever since she lost that fight she's been focusing on perfecting her skills. I guess you're the one to thank for that," she smiled brightly. Gikaru noticed her strange crimson eyes. They had rings circling her pupil. He wondered if this woman had some sort of kekkei genkai.

"Alright guys, well I think you've all been slightly briefed on the mission. I'm going to give you guys the highlights of the mission," said the Hokage as he gathered everyone's attention. "Kisame arrived at the village earlier today with some information about Iwagakure," he took a deep breath.

"Iwa has been quiet the last few months. When I noticed their suspicious lack of activity, I sent a two man squad to infiltrate their ranks as commoners and report back periodically on anything they noticed in the village. After about two months, their reports started coming in later and later and by the third month they had stopped completely. Distracted by other issues around the village, I had put that mission to the side and focused on other matters, assuming that the spies were just in deep and not able to report at that time," he stopped for a second to check his audience's reactions. "When Kisame arrived today he informed me that the probability of the spies being killed already is extremely high. Although, I'm hoping that on your mission they or you all will catch on each other's scents. I have given Kiba an article of their clothing and shown Hinata-chan visuals of both of them. They will be on the lookout for our agents. The main objective of the mission is to track down the two jinchuriki which are residing in the village," he was interrupted by a roomful of gasps.

"Two jinchuriki Naruto? That sounds highly improbable. Did Kisame give you this information?" asked Yamato.

"Yeah I did, got a problem with that?" added Kisame.

"How would you have acquired such information? It's not like you've been in the loop the last few years," questioned Yamato.

"I was in Iwa on some business and I heard rumors of these guys. They had reacquired the Yonbi under unknown circumstances and come into control of the Gobi also. They plan on using the bijuu as their main weapon on a counter-attack against Konoha. After finishing my business there, I made my way here to inform you guys of what I heard. Consider yourselves lucky that I'm telling you this," snorted Kisame. Yamato scratched his chin.

"This is exactly the reason I'm sending you guys there. I want you to find out how they got these bijuu and potentially assassinate the two jinchuriki. However, avoid confrontation unless necessary. The only reason I'm saying assassinate them is in case you do engage in combat. Might as well kill two birds with one stone," said Naruto.  
"Kurenai is on this team specifically because of her mastery of genjutsu. The Gobi is known to enhance its host body with a complete mastery of genjutsu. There is no better person to counter the Gobi than Kurenai. Hinata and Kiba are scouts, Yamato is there to nullify any jinchuriki cloaks and suppress their powers, Gikaru for muscle, Kisame for his experience with the Yonbi, and finally, Miyuki and Sakura as your field medics. I want you guys on the road within the next two hours. Use the next two hours as your prep time, Sakura and Yamato will be team leaders. You're dismissed."

"Wait, Hokage-sama. Who is going to be in charge of my team?" asked Gikaru.

"I didn't even think about that," the Hokage stopped and pondered for a moment. "I think I've got someone in mind. You might have already met this person," he grinned.

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you guys liked it. I brought back the Eight Man Squad!!! Hahahah this is definitely going to be fun to write. I promise there will be lots of fight scenes! I love writing fight scenes actually. Next chapter I will most likely have a large segment of it devoted to Tsunade. There are some loose ends I want to tie up with her, as well as finality to her story. No one really voted on who they wanted Team 4's sensei to be so I decided myself :D! Also, if you guys have any characters that you are wanting to see, ask me through a review/PM and I'll let you know if they might be making an appearance! Your question could also turn the gears in my mind to actually put that character into my story hahaha. Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, I'm excited for the next few chapters. Hope you guys are too! PEACEEEEEEEEEEE and **Review!**


	7. Tsunade's Tears

**Chapter 6:**

**A/N: **Lots of Tsunade in this chapter! Sorry for the delay on the update. I've had a lot of stuff to do irl. Lots of schoolwork in preparation for the Navy! Anyway in this chapter we got very little Eight Man Squad, just a slight update and a little teaser :D Lots of Tsunade. Team 4 has got a decent amount of screentime(haha) in this chapter. Go Hitomi! Anyway, enjoy the newest installment of _Root: The Kazegan!_

* * *

Hitomi was being escorted to the Root Headquarters by Gikaru's assistant, Mizuki. Her job was to watch over Team 4 while Gikaru was away on his mission. Miyuki was on the same mission as him and she wondered what the two could possibly have in common that they would both be on a mission together, an S-ranked mission, which was even more suspicious. Hitomi was pretty sure that Miyuki had no place being on such a difficult mission. She trusted her former teammate, but her skills were not near where they needed to be. She wasn't very proficient in taijutsu or ninjutsu, she had some tricks with genjutsu, but her main asset was medical ninjutsu. In her mind, they could have found a more well rounded and experienced medic, like Haruno Sakura or Yamanaka Ino.

Hitomi's thoughts were interrupted by Mizuki. They seemed to have arrived at the Hokage heads.

"I suggest you take those goggles off Hijiri-kun, it's not that bright in here. I wouldn't want to have to take you to the medical ward for walking into too many walls," he laughed.

"I'll be fine," she said.

"Suit yourself them," he smiled.

The awfully cheerful man formed a strange set of hand seals and slammed them against the wall. Even with her eyes, she couldn't pick up what exactly the seals were; they were some strange combination she had never seen before. These Root guys were definitely strange. A passageway opened where the assistant had slammed his hands and she followed the man down the dark passageway.

He wasn't lying when he said the passageway was dark. There were very dim lit torches on the walls which barely showed through her goggles. If it weren't for her eyes, she would no doubt be walking blind. As they walked, they came to a bright circular shaped hall which had several doors on each side. The doors seemed to be made of a very strong metal. On each door there was a Root insignia engraved in the center.

"This is the main hall. Each door leads to a different part of the compound. The Cafeteria is the top right door, the arena is the top middle door, the shinobi dormitories are to the top left, the instructor dormitories are on the bottom left and Gikaru's office is to the bottom right. We assumed that you would be staying at your own home so we didn't prepare a room for you," he once again smiled. He didn't seem to realize what he had just said was _extremely_ rude.

"I'm glad you're all so quick to make me comfortable," Hitomi said sarcastically.

"I must introduce you to your temporary students. Please follow me," he smiled _again._ Not seeming to care that what he said had offended her. Hitomi gave him a glare which she knew he could see despite her goggles. He still had the same fake, emotionless smile on his face. She followed him to the top left door.

* * *

_Sixteen years._ Her teammates were gone; the people she loved were gone. She'd had no real "family" ever since Dan and Nawaki had died. The closest thing she had to love in her life was Jiraiya, but he was now gone too. Even Orochimaru, once her best friend and esteemed teammate, had been corrupt by darkness. He took a wrong turn in the road of life and sought out immortality in the most evil ways imaginable. Even though they were not on the same side, she knew Orochimaru, no matter how dark he had become, could ever kill Jiraiya or herself. They had a bond which could never be severed. They were the _Densetsu No Sannin_, known in every land, every village, and every home. Nothing could ever change that.

But then came Jiraiya's death and Orochimaru's followed; history seemed to be repeating itself. Everyone she cared about was dying again. Her heart had begun its decent to a very lonely, emotionless place. She knew that if she didn't fill her heart with some sort of companionship or importance, she would lose it. Knowing what was best for her, she devoted her heart to the one thing she knew needed it the most, _Konohagauke no sato._ She had found a new reason to live, a new reason to love.

All seemed well until her new found devotion was almost completely destroyed along with the loss of another important person, Shizune. She had promised herself that she would protect Shizune the rest of her life in respect for Dan and it turned out to be an empty promise. It seemed that no matter how much she tried, she would continue to lose everything around her. The fact that she was the most skilled medical shinobi ever didn't seem to help her save the people she loved. Her hands, her tools, had become useless. She knew she couldn't give up, so she used every ounce of chakra she could find within herself to preserve as many lives as possible within her beloved village. When it came to facing the self-proclaimed god, Pain, she proved incompetent. Her body was old, worn, and used. She couldn't conjure up anymore strength and she thought that she had failed to protect everything she lived her life for. For a slight second, she felt somewhat peaceful with the thought of dying. If she died she thought she would be able to see the people she cared for.

However, the person who had once snapped her out of her delusions did it once again: Uzumaki Naruto. He showed her the light; renewed the will of fire within her heart. He defended her against the person she most hated at the time. Nagato had brought about the death of both Jiraiya and Shizune and she wanted revenge by all means necessary. Naruto prevented her from doing so, but at the same time preserved her life. It gave her a chance to reflect on the events going on in her life.

Immediately after the quelling of Nagato's invasion, the reconstruction of Konoha began. Along with the reconstruction, her relationship with her star student, Haruno Sakura, grew greatly. The girl had become a prodigy much like herself and Tsunade found a lot of similar traits in Sakura which she found in herself; her unbarring love, relentless effort and her volcanic temper. She found it somewhat exciting. Years passed and her relationship with Jiraiya's pupil, Uzumaki Naruto, grew as well. Again, similarities between Jiraiya and Naruto emerged as he grew. Her growing relationship with Naruto could be credited to her nostalgia for Jiraiya, but she knew that Naruto was a pure person, someone she could trust, despite the demon within him. Time continued to pass and her heart felt a void once again. Both Sakura and Naruto's services increased in demand as they got older. Naruto had became known as Konoha's Demon and Sakura as Konoha's Healing Blossom; the latter being more flattering. Their time in the village dwindled as well as her desire to live the lonely life she was living.

Even more time passed and the 4th Great Shinobi War made its way to Konoha's gates. She knew she wouldn't be able to serve her home to her fullest extent and so she passed on the title of Hokage to Naruto. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders as well as her last reason to live on. She had been asked by Naruto to serve as a medic and so she did what she did best, healed. Again she minimized the deaths in Konoha but still something was missing. She knew there was something more she could do and that's when the gears in her mind began turning. If she could somehow separate Kabuto's body from Orochimaru's remaining cells, she could possibly bring Orochimaru back to life. At least half of Kabuto's body was said to be taken over by Orochimaru's, which made the task somewhat easier. She didn't know how she would do it but she would do it.

She dropped everything she was doing in the hospitals and made her way to her home. She geared up, gathered every tool she had available and went headfirst into the battlefield. Remaining unseen and throwing an occasional kunai to assist her fellow shinobi, she set out to find Kabuto. Her last chance to bring back someone important to her was within her reach. She infiltrated enemy lines; cloaking her chakra signature with as much concentration as possible. She felt her aged body take its toll on her ability to travel long distances but she had to persevere.

As she sat perched in a tree, observing the enemy's main camp, she caught a slight glimpse of Kabuto. She moved as quietly as possible trying to find a closer spot to launch her attack. She knew she had to be almost silent because of the Oto shinobi's increased hearing ability. Before she could shunshin to a neighboring tree, a storm of allied shinobi surrounded Kabuto's camp; Naruto at the forefront and Shikamaru at his side. She lost her chance. Naruto wouldn't allow her interference; he needed to be sure that Kabuto would be completely eradicated, but she couldn't allow that to happen! Kabuto was her key to bringing back the last, somewhat living, person from her past back. As Naruto was about to charge at Kabuto, she also made her move. Though, before she could even devise how she could attack, she had been tackled to the ground by a Konoha ANBU. Shikamaru's attention was immediately drawn to her and locked her in his Shadow Possession Jutsu. If they had tried to restrain her physically, it would have been near impossible. She had the strength of a hundred men. She then realized there was nothing she could do. All she could do was watch.

She watched a fearsome battle. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. She saw Naruto use tactics she never even thought possible. He was able to use his Advanced Shadow Clone Jutsu to separate the Nine-Tails from his body and allow it to fight with a mind of its own. It was as if it were two completely separate people fighting Kabuto. Even though the battle was 2-on-1, Kabuto was holding his own against the Kyuubi and Naruto. He motioned for the Nine-Tails to distract Kabuto while he entered Sage Mode. Quickly, he performed a summoning jutsu and two tiny toads appeared and took their place on Naruto's shoulders. It wasn't the same toads that Jiraiya used but they seemed very similar in appearance; except for their age. Once in Sage Mode, Naruto unleashed everything he had. The Kyuubi Clone's chakra flared causing a two tailed chakra cloak to appear around it. Kabuto tried to use ninjutsu, but Naruto's attacks were too fast for him to settle down enough to perform an adept jutsu.

As the battle went on, Kabuto got weaker and weaker. He was out of breath, low on chakra, and it seemed like he kept clutching the right side of his face. The only explanation for that was that since he was in a weakened state, Orochimaru's cells must have been trying to take over his body. As she was thinking of possible explanations, a sudden surge of wind surrounded the area. Everyone around her clutched to the ground or the nearest object using chakra to hold their place. Kabuto attempted to do the same, but before he could think of an alternate strategy, Naruto used one of his most fearsome jutsu, Triple Tornado Destruction.

The entire battlefield was engulfed into the tornadoes and everyone minus Naruto and Kabuto began to retreat. Trees were being uprooted, the enemy camp being torn to shreds, and Kabuto was on his knees holding to the ground. The farther away she got, the less she could see. Naruto's jutsu had an enormous target area, enough to devour an entire village. Before she knew it, she was at Konoha's gates. All around her were dead shinobi and samurai; friend and foe. Everyone turned back to where they had once been and watched as the entire area was blown to bits. Soon after, the winds dimmed down and they saw their fearsome Hokage return from the rubble. He had an ambiguous look on his face; Kabuto must have disappeared. As disappointed as she was, she was in a strange way relieved.

She had another chance to save her friend. And now, a few months later, after no sign of Kabuto; she would search for him. She would go high and low but she would find him. She had to save the last piece of her past that she had left. And if she couldn't bring Orochimaru back, she would end Kabuto's life in the name of her village, even if it meant sacrificing her own.

* * *

This guy had his own office. It didn't seem like anyone else had their own office, so he must be pretty important. Hitomi sighed. What was she going to do with these three brats? They kind of reminded her of her team when they were genin, minus the extreme depression. They were all a little weird. One kid who was apparently a Yamanaka, had bandages wrapped all around his head, the other kid was just very quiet and didn't seem like he gave a shit about anything, and the girl was wearing a very skimpy outfit and had a constant smile on her face.

"Well, are you here to just look at us or are we going to do something?" asked the black haired child. He sure had some attitude to him.

"What's your name again, brat?" replied Hitomi.

"Takeru. What was yours again bi-," he was cut off by a slap to the face from the blonde chic.

"I'm sorry Hijiri-san. My teammates aren't exactly socially competent," said the skimpy blonde.

"We'll see I guess. What was your name again girl?" asked Hitomi.

"Aomori Yokama!" she replied happily. Hitomi nodded.

"And I know your name," she looked towards the Yamanaka. "You're Yamanaka Inokuza."

"You hit the nail on the head ace," he replied sarcastically.

"I'm glad most of you are so happy to be under my care," said Hitomi, also sarcastically. "Whether you like it or not, it is my mission to keep an eye on you guys."

"I'm pretty sure we're completely able to watch over ourselves. We don't need you watching over us like little kids," snorted Takeru.

"Too bad brat, I get paid to watch over you and whether you like it or not, it's your sensei's orders for you to listen to me. And how come you guys aren't rude like this when your around Gikaru?" asked Hitomi.

"Because we respect him, unlike you," said Takeru.

"Well, who knows how long we're going to be together, so I suggest you learn to respect me because the next however many weeks will be really rough for you if you don't. Don't think because I'm a woman and I wear these goggles, gives you an excuse to underestimate me. I was trained by the Hokage himself and trained alongside Uchiha Sasuke. I am no joke," she added. She watched as Takeru's expression turned from one of ignorance to one of submissiveness.

"Well Miss I'm-So-Good, what exactly _are_ we going to do," said Inokuza.

"We're going to see the Rokudaime. I'm going to ask that he find us a mission to go on," answered Hitomi.

"I don't know if we're ready for that Hijiri-san. We were made genin not too long ago and-," she was cut off by Hitomi.

"Oh the ever elite Root genin can't go on a simple mission," she said with a damsel-in-distress-like expression. "Let me tell ya, everyone in the village has some high expectations for you guys. We're all aware of how you guys have been under intensive training for the last year, so we're expecting at least chunin if not jonin level performance. You will probably be the first Root team to be sent on a mission, so if you fail this mission you're setting a terrible example for the rest of the program. I mean if you're not ready and all I understand, I didn't expect much of you guys anyway. I told everyone you guys wouldn't be all we expected," said Hitomi smugly.

"It's not that. It's just we don't know what exactly your skills are and how we will adapt them to our skills," said Yokama. "We are more than ready for a mission Hijiri-san, but we are trained to plan everything out before we set out. We need to know each other's skills so that there will be no errors or mistakes. That is what we are trained to do, we know no different."

"I don't work that way and it's too late for me to change. All you need to know is: I have exceptional speed, reflexes and vision, I am a highly skilled fire user, and I'm highly skilled at taijutsu. Got it? Good. Let's head out,"

* * *

"Hitomi, you already want a mission? This is your first time leading a genin squad, are you sure you're up to it?" asked the Hokage.

"Yes Naruto-sensei," replied Hitomi with utmost confidence in herself. Takeru coughed in the background and she quickly turned to give him an apparent glare. She hoped that he could notice it despite her goggles.

"Normally, I would assign you guys D-ranked missions due to being a genin squad but since you guys are technically a branch of ANBU and well above genin level," the Rokudaime paused and pondered for a moment. He leaned back in his chair and scratched his head. "I guess I can give you guys a relatively difficult B-ranked mission." Hitomi grinned.

"That's what I'm talkin' about Naruto-san!" exclaimed Hitomi. "What's the mission sensei?

"A small village near the Valley of the End has recently reported former Sound shinobi going in and out of their village. They haven't really caused any trouble, but there has been the occasional roughing up of merchants and restaurant owners for cheaper prices. Your objective is to find out what the Sound shinobi are doing in Fire Country and disperse any cells of Sound shinobi that are becoming a problem."

"I don't understand," announced the Yamanaka prodigy. If these Sound-nin aren't causing any trouble, why interfere. Wouldn't we only be causing trouble where it's not needed?"

"If it were any of our allies, I would have no problem with it," replied the blonde-haired Hokage. "But, don't forget that these shinobi were responsible for the start of the 4th Great Shinobi War. They attempted to destroy our village and the system of life we live as we know it. They need to be taken care of and pay for their crimes." The Hokage had a stern look on his face. "This is also a chance to find out about the whereabouts of former Sound operative, Okatsu, and any sign of the presumed-dead leader, Kabuto. Understood?"

"Understood," said Team 4 and their temporary leader in unison.

"You'll be leaving for your mission tomorrow at sunrise. Hitomi take this scroll," he handed a small scroll to Hitomi. It contains one of my information toads. Summon it and it will use reverse-summoning to return to Konoha and notify me of any developments. I will then return it to you and let you know of any changes in your objective and whether or not you will be returning to village after the mission's completion."

"See you later sensei." The group made their way for the door and as they were leaving the Godaime was walking into the Rokudaime's office.

"Hokage-sama," bowed Hitomi.

"Hello Hijiri. I'm sorry I have no time to talk. I have important matters to speak of with Naruto," said Tsunade.

"I understand. I'll see you around Tsunade-sama."

As the team walked out of the room all they could hear was the loud-mouthed Hokage yelling, "Granny! How ya doin!" and a loud crashing sound immediately after.

* * *

It had been about a day since the new Eight Man Squad had left Konoha. It was nearing nightfall and the Moon was slowly making its way to the sky.

"How much further do we have to go!" yelled Kiba as he rode on his dog's back through the vast amount of trees.

"We have been moving at a pretty good pace and we should arrive at the border of Grass Country by about midnight tonight. Once we get there we'll make camp for the night and continue our way to Iwa which at this rate should be only about 5 days as opposed to 7," replied Sakura.

"What a drag," replied the Inuzuka.

"K-Kiba-kun, t-think of it this way, we'll be able to camp in friendly territory for the night," said the Hyuga girl who was travelling beside Kiba.

"All I know is I better get some grub when we stop. Hopefully there's a village near the border of Kusa," yelled Kisame from the back of the pack.

"I think there's a small little merchant town near our camping site. We can stop there for supplies," yelled back Haruno from the front. "The morning after we camp, we're going to get into a more organized formation for safety purposes. Who knows what could happen while travelling near Iwa borders. We need to be on high alert."

Gikaru listened to the grouptalk amongst themselves. He didn't feel like he needed to say anything. It might be strange if he ed to start a conversation with any of them; they barely knew him.

* * *

It was almost midnight and the group arrived at the border of Fire and Grass. About a mile northwest of their current location, they saw a cloud of smoking growing above what must have been the merchant village.

"Everyone we have to get in emergency formation. Kiba in the back, keep a scent on anyone coming from behind, Hinata up front to keep an eye out for what's ahead. Miyuki and Kurenai I need you guys near the middle, Gikaru I want you behind Hinata and I for support. Yamato and Kisame stay ahead of Kiba for rear support. Everyone in a straight line, I'll set the pace," barked Haruno.

She knew how to give orders. She immediately dashed off at an alarming speed which left everyone in a slight second of awe. They all rushed behind her in the formation she told them to get in and raced off to see what was causing that strange cloud of smoke.

* * *

**A/N: **We've got an old friend coming up next chapter which is going to intercept the Eight Man Squad! I've got lots of ideas for this one. The Tsunade segment was really emotional, I was listening to some depressing music lol. I hope you guys like it and leave me a review! I'll have the next update up this week also! Wooooooo hooo! Don't forget to review! Gotta love those snotty Team 4 people!


	8. Enter Zetsu!

**Chapter 7:**

**A/N: **To my surprise, I almost teared up while writing the these last two chapters. I've wrote about some very emotional things in my opinion over the course of these last two chapters and I know it's not the most enjoyable thing to read but I think it was necessary for the story. I mean Tsunade _is_ the last remaining sannin, she atleast deserves at least a few chapters with a large portion of her in them.

I also revised the prelude to include a small segment about Gikaru before he came to Konoha. It's not much but I think the prelude was a little sloppy which might have been deterring people from reading the story so I made it a little more clean cut :D. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I brought back another old friend; I tried my best with his character. It was a little difficult but I think I managed. *sigh* I love my story, I hope you guys love it too. Please review and let me know what you guys think, I really want to know how you guys feel about the story and the direction its going in. I also want to know if anyone else sees any discrepencies that I am not seeing.

P.S.: In a few chapters I'm planning on introducing the other two members of Sayuri-chan's team and I can't seem to come up with any ideas for what their abilities should be. I wanted most of the Root shinobi to have unique abilities, not necesarily kekkei genkai, but cool abilities that you normally don't see. I tried doing that with the characters in Gikaru's team: Inokuza being a Yamanaka, Takeru being a medic, and Yokama being a genjutsu specialist. To me, I've always wanted to see more of them in the manga so I tried to do that through my story. So hopefully, you guys can give me some good ideas. Any way of contacting me is good whether it be through a review or a PM, I'd love to hear your suggesstions. Peace out and enjoy the newest installment of _Root: The Kazegan._

* * *

"Hinata can you see anything up ahead?" asked team leader Haruno.

"D-Destruction," was all the Hyuga leader could mutter.

"Can you see if there is any fighting still going on?" asked Gikaru.

"There still is. It seems like there is a Venus fly trap sticking out of the ground. One second," the Hokage's girlfriend put her hands together into a seal to further concentrate her Byakugan. "It is former Akatsuki member, Zetsu!"

Kisame's eyes widened. "What you talkin' about there Hyuga girl?" demanded Kisame

"E-exactly w-what I said Kisame-kun. It's your f-former associate," she replied.

"Is he with the resistance or the attackers?"

"I can't d-differentiate them."

Everyone fell silent as they approached the village and everything came into view. Gikaru was shocked by the destruction. Entire homes were devastated by enormous boulders and fissures. The forest around the village had been destroyed as well. The bamboo stalks which seemed to decorate the village had all been broken and destroyed.

When the team landed in the village, they were approached by a group of fleeing villagers. Their clothes were torn and a man was carrying an injured child. A woman was running with two children, one holding each of her hands. When she was about to speak she collapsed at Sakura's feet. Sakura immediately kneeled and began healing any injuries the women had. Hinata, who also had some expertise in medical ninjutsu, began healing the child in the man's arms.

Yamato approached that was carrying the child in his arms offering him a handshake, "What has happened here?"

"Iwagakure shinobi attacked our village. We don't know why! We have nothing of value here! This village just strives to make a live for our families. We rely on the resources around us to support us economically but now-," he held his face in his hands and began to cry.

One of the last standing wooden houses ahead of the group became a pile of rubble. A man who had a Venus fly trap surrounding his head, had just gone flying through the house.

"_You little fuckers, you don't want us to get serious," _said the man who Hinata had identified as Zetsu. His voice was extremely maniacal. "Maybe we should just leave, I have a bad feeling about this," the voice seemed to have come from Zetsu also.

"_You're an idiot if you think a former Akatsuki member is going to run from these brats," _said the maniacal voice again. "Why do we always get ourselves into these messes?"

Zetsu was being surrounded by three enemy shinobi. In the distance Gikaru could see several other shinobi destroying various structures. Kisame leapt to Zetsu's aide as Kiba and Kurenai went to confront the other shinobi. Zetsu looked at Kisame as Kisame offered him a hand to get up. Miyuki was opening a summoning scroll and summoned a small toad. She began speaking to it and it 'poof'd'.

"I've sent a message to Naruto-sensei," she said to Yamato. He nodded and began talking to the man.

"Do you know who that man is?" asked Yamato.

"He is the only shinobi in our little village. He promised to protect our village in exchange for shelter and food. We found it to be a great opportunity. Bandits would, from time-to-time, attack our village and ransack us, as well as Iwa shinobi. Kusa really doesn't pay us any attention. Almost nobody knows this little village exists," the man frowned.

"Help is here, do not worry," said Yamato as he put his hand on the man's shoulder. "Gikaru, please assist in the quelling of these shinobi."

Gikaru nodded and activated his Kazegan. He finally felt like he had a chance to unleash.

* * *

Gikaru performed a set of hand seals and activated his supplementary jutsu, "_Wind Release: Increased Air Current."_ This jutsu increased the air currents in the surrounding area making his wind jutsu more deadly and making it easier for him to travel on the currents.

He quickly merged with an air current beside him and followed it over to Kiba's side. Kiba seemed shocked by his sudden emergence but this was no time to be surprised. They were in battle.

He quickly withdrew two of his kunai and launched them at the two Iwa shinobi, using his wind chakra to propel them. Right after he launched the kunai he merged with the air current he had created by propelling his kunai and followed them to the shinobi who were standing a mere three feet apart. One of the enemy shinobi slammed his hands to the ground and created a stone wall in front of them. Right when the kunai were going to impact the wall, Gikaru jumped off the air current, grabbed his kunai and threw them from the top of the wall, and reentered the air current he was once on. The two shinobi wouldn't know what had hit them.

He rode the current back to Kiba's side and leaned against his enormous pet. The dog licked Gikaru's face.

"How the hell did you do that!?" asked Kiba frantically. His pet barked also.

"With my eyes," he responded.

"I want eyes like those! You became one with the air!" Kiba looked like he had seen a ghost. "I knew there was something different about those yellow eyes of yours!"

"Enough talking, lets help the others," suggested Gikaru.

"Kurenai-sensei is over there fighting like five of these stone guys. I'm pretty sure she could handle it. She doesn't like it when others interfere with her illusions."

"Is she that skilled that she can handle five shinobi at once?" asked Gikaru with a quixotic look on his face.

"She can enter people's minds and see their thoughts. She knows the pathways of a person's brain better than a surgeon. Once she's in, there's no getting out. The only person I've seen break out of one of her illusions is Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto almost did, but she created an illusion of ramen and he bit like a rabbit on a carrot," the Inuzuka chuckled.

Gikaru turned his attention to the battle between Kisame and the three Iwa shinobi he was fighting. Those three had to be jonin for them to focus on the only shinobi in the village. The others must all be around genin or chunin level.

Kisame put his hands together and shot an enormous wave of water out of his mouth. The water reached all that way to Gikaru's feet. Kiba's dog began rolling around in the water as Kiba jumped on to a nearby piece of rubble. Immediately after he created the wave of water, Kisame performed another jutsu which caused five sharks made of water pursue the three jonin he was fighting. 2 went to the left, 2 went to the right, and the last one went to the middle.

The middle jonin made a seal and the ground began to rise above him. He created a round pillar which stood about a meter high. One of the jonin had been unsuccessful in escaping Kisame's sharks while the other created a sword made of stone and slashed through both of them. The jonin on the pillar performed a sequence of seals which ended in a snake seal and yelled, "_Earth Release: Sharpened Pillar Destruction!"_

From the ground, enormous sharpened stalagmites emerged and attempted to impale Kisame and Zetsu. Both of them leapt into the air as from one of sharpened pillars, the other Iwa jonin emerged with a kunai in hand.

While in mid air, Kisame grabbed his sword with both hands and pointed it to the ground. He raised it and put all the force he could into slamming it towards the ground. He held onto the sword and as he made his rapid decent to the ground he screamed, "_Earth Shockwave!" _

Kisame sent a shockwave of chakra through his sword which created waves in the ground. With the earth being completely destroyed, the two jonin had nowhere to go. The pillar the head shinobi had created had collapsed and both he and his partner were side by side in front of Kisame.

"Get out of here you two beasts. The likes of you aren't welcome here!" screamed the head jonin.

"This beast is going to teach you a lesson!" replied Kisame. He performed an alarmingly fast set of seals and from the puddles around the two jonin, four clones of Kisame appeared! The two jonin shook as they both slammed into each other's backs. With the two jonin trapped, the four clones slashed their cloned Samehadas' at them. Gikaru turned his head away right before the two ninja were shredded to pieces.

All he could hear above the two shinobi's screams was Kisame's sly remark, "Don't play with sharks." He could only imagine the grin on Kisame's face.

* * *

One of the shinobi that Gikaru had attacked managed to survive. After some emergency treatment from Miyuki, he was able to speak.

"Why are you attacking this village!" demanded Sakura.

"I won't tell you shit bitch," the prisoner responded.

"It is late and I suggest you don't piss me off. I haven't even gotten my beauty sleep yet," she replied.

"Let me make this easy for you, I'm-not-telling-you-shit-BITCH!"

"If that's how you want to be, so be it," Sakura smiled right before bringing back her right hand and charging it full of chakra and slapping the fool across his face. Gikaru could almost see his lost teeth fly out in slow motion.

"Talk and this could be much less painful for you," suggested Sakura. "I'll go easy on you if you give me something we need."

"I've got something you need honey," grinned the prisoner. This time Sakura didn't bring back an open an open hand, but a closed fist. Right as she was about the punch the guy Kurenai yelled out, "Sakura! No!"

Kurenai had stopped Sakura just in time before she broke the man's skull into little pieces, "We need him intact if we expect to get any information out of him."

"I thought I told you low life Leaf shinobi, I'm not tellin' you anything."

"You won't have to tell me anything, I'll find out for myself." There was nothing the Iwa man could do. He was restrained and couldn't resist Kurenai putting her hands to his temples. She was most likely entering his mind and it would be near impossible for this man to resist her.

"While Kurenai-san is doing that, would you care to explain why you're here Zetsu?" Yamato had managed to stray the attention away from the prisoner back to the strange associate of Kisame.

"_Can't anything get past Konoha shinobi," _snarled Zetsu. His face seemed to be divided in half. His left side was black and the right side white. It was awfully strange that the man had a two colored face and a two sided personality. "We were just here enjoying the scenery."

"I can smell a lie from a mile away buddy. I suggest you cough up why you're really here," announced Kiba.

"_I don't think that's any of your business kid. Stick to sniffin' garbage," _Kiba gritted his teeth at Zetsu's response.

"Maybe we should just tell them," suggested the more sensible of Zetsu's voices.

"_Maybe you could stop being an idiot and we could just disappear right now."_

"That'd be awfully rude with Kisame here by our side."

"_Kisame seems to be with the brats."_

"He might have good intentions."

"_I don't care."_

"You really need to cut the crap Zetsu. What the hell are you doing here," interrupted Kisame.

"_Since you idiots are insisting. We live here."_

"What the hell are you doing living here?" wondered Kisame.

"The scenery is nice. Its quiet, warm, and-"

"_Shut up idiot."_

"Oh sorry."

"They sure are strange," whispered Kiba to Miyuki.

"I've seen weirder," she responded, not whispering.

"Got it!" exclaimed Kurenai. Everyone once again shifted their attention to Kurenai.

"Bitch…" said the captured shinobi right before he passed out.

"Iwagakure sent a small group consisting of 3 jonin, and 5 chunin to ransack this village and take control of it. He didn't know much, but what he did know is that it was to have an outpost that was near the Land of Fire so that Iwa could keep an eye on Konoha," said Kurenai as she told the group of the information she gathered from their prisoner's mind.

"Miyuki-" called Sakura.

"Already on it," she responded. She was once against sending a messenger frog to Naruto.

"We have to get moving Sakura. This has set us very behind schedule," added Yamato.

"We need to rest and supply these people with assistance," scolded Sakura.

"That isn't our objective. The safety of our village is at stake Sakura. The best thing to do would for me to send a clone to Kusagakure letting them know of the attack on one of their villages and have them deal with it. Relations are good with Kusa so there should be no problems with my clone approaching," said Yamato calmly.

"What about resting," asked Sakura.

"The time we've been sitting here is sufficient. Everyone drink up, eat what you can, and we're leaving in 15 minutes," stated Yamato.

"What you gon' do Zetsu?" asked Kisame.

"We're not sure; probably just going find somewhere else to hang around. Nothing better to do," said the calmer side. "_Akatsuki gave us something to do at least."_

Kisame nodded, "Stay in touch Zetsu. You never know when we might need each other."

"_How exactly do you want us to do that?" _said the darker side sarcastically.

"That's your department. You're the one who's good at finding people," said Kisame with a smirk.

"Everyone ready to go," shouted Yamato as a clone of himself grew out of his body.

"That wasn't 15 minutes!" Kisame yelled back.

"Too bad, let's get moving."

Kisame growled as he bid farewell to his old friend and watched him become one with the ground.

* * *

Team 4 left Konoha at sunrise just as the Hokage had ordered them to. Hitomi told them they should be arriving at the village around lunch time if they kept a good pace. The group had never been in this far outside of the village, so it would also be a good time to explore places outside of Konoha.

"What should we be expecting Hijiri-san," asked Yokama.

"I'm not exactly sure. To tell you the truth, this is a very strange mission. If anything, Naruto knows that we're going to have to extend the parameters of the mission and eventually cross over into the Land of Rice Fields," said Hitomi.

"Why wouldn't he just tell us that the objective of the mission is to infiltrate the remnants of Otogakure?" asked Inokuza.

"Probably because he didn't want to worry you guys," replied Hitomi.

"We're shinobi of Root; we don't worry," stated Inokuza rather blatantly.

"Naruto is kind and caring. He still sees you guys as children and fails to realize that you've been 'specially trained'. Can't blame the guy for caring," said the Hokage's former student.

"If that was what he wanted then he should've just said so. We are here to serve him and do his bidding," said Takeru.

"You guys make it sound like you're robots. The Hokage doesn't consider you his tools or his slaves. You need to realize that," she said with a surprisingly caring tone.

"Whether he does or doesn't, it doesn't matter to us. We were trained to help the village when it needed an extra hand. We spent the last year of our lives undergoing as long as 10 hour training sessions, just for the sake of the village, not our own. We get paid to do this and we're going to do it regardless of what anyone, including the Hokage, thinks of us," said Inokuza quite sternly.

Hitomi kept silent and continued travelling through the trees. These kids seemed to have an emotional wall up when it came to doing their job, which was good. But, she was afraid they would carry that wall over to their social lives. If they did that, they would end up like Miyuki or herself. She didn't want that for anyone.

However, she noticed that these kids were significantly different from other former Root members she knew, like Sai. Sai had taken years to learn social skills because he was stripped of them all during his tour of Root. The old program led by Danzo focused on erasing the shinobi off all thoughts, emotions, or feelings which didn't associate with battle. They were literally machines; they knew nothing but fighting.

In the new Root program, they used the same concept, but it seemed they only taught it the kids to enter the 'emotionless state' when they were fighting an enemy. It was a relatively different approached, which Hitomi hoped to see the results of.

"Everyone stop," said Hitomi, breaking the awkward silence.

"Why are we stopping, we haven't been travelling for that long," objected Takeru.

"We're going to start walking. The village is up ahead and we don't want to seem like we're trying to cause any trouble by abruptly hopping in on them," scoffed Hitomi.

"How did you know the village was up ahead? All I can see is trees," pondered Inokuza.

"I've got good eyesight. Now shut up and let's go," said Hitomi.

She jumped down from the trees onto the main road but she could feel Inokuza's glare as she landed.

"Only a Hyuga can see that distance. You can't fool me Hijiri. I know why you wear those goggles. You're hiding that fact that you have a dojutsu!" barked Inokuza.

Hitomi made fists with her hands in an attempt to quell her anger, "Actually, my eyes are extremely sensitive to light. So before you go about making outrageous claims, I suggest you get your facts straight! It also doesn't help your case that I've been in this area dozens of times. I am a jonin and I've been on quite a few missions believe it or not!"

"Whatever you say," responded Inokuza. His teammates were behind him with blank looks on their faces. They knew better than to get involved in a fight that wasn't theirs.

"As I said before, let's get moving so we aren't behind schedule. There are some Oto shinobi which need a good ass kicking," she scoffed.

* * *

Her conversation with Naruto had gone better than expected. He hadn't really tried to stop her,nor could he, but he tried to give her a few words of advice. He reminded her of what happened the last time she fought Kabuto and how he had unleashed a jutsu which could have easily killed everyone in the vicinity of his blast. But, Naruto didn't put into account that she wasn't fighting all out and trying to protect the people fighting alongside her. If she had used her Mitotic Regeneration, there would have been nothing Kabuto could have done.

---

"_Granny Tsunade, whatchya' need!" said the loud-mouthed Hokage._

"_ I'm here to discuss a very serious matter with you. You need to listen to me and accept what I'm about to tell you," she said in a very calm tone._

"_What is it Tsunade?"_

"_I'm going to look for Kabuto."_

"_What are you talking about? I've had people keeping an eye out for him for months and there's still no sign of him. What makes you think you're going to find him?" wondered Naruto._

"_He has my friend Naruto. I want to rid Orochimaru of any suffering he's going through by constantly fighting for a place in that monster's body," she said whole-heartedly. _

"_Why would you want to bring back the man who tried to kill both you and Jiraiya and even me!"_

"_He would've never killed Jiraiya or I. None of us could ever bring each other to do so. We worked side by side for longer than you could imagine. In the last 16 years Naruto, I've been lonely. Shizune and Jiraiya's dead sent me to a place in my heart where I never wanted to go."_

"_You've got Sakura and me obaachan!" exclaimed Naruto._

"_I know Naruto and I thank you guys for keeping me company the last few years, but I can't depend on you guys for the remainder of life. I don't have much time left and I want to give my final goodbye to Orochimaru. I at least had the luxury of doing so with Jiraiya."_

"_Tsunade-"_

"_Don't worry about me Naruto. If I find Kabuto, I swear to you that I will at least strip him of the power that Orochimaru gives him. Knowing Orochimaru, he made sure that Kabuto survived your jutsu. His goal is to live on forever one way or another."_

"_If you are going to your death Tsunade, it will not be in vain. I am hereby with the power vested in me, by you, am assigning you to search and eliminate the threat of Kabuto. I am ranking your mission S-rank and your payment shall be a constant reminder of me in your home," he laughed._

"_Naruto, that is no payment, that's a curse," she laughed as well. _

"_I'm going to miss you Tsunade."_

"_I'm going to miss you too Naruto," she looked into his eyes and could sense his compassion._

"_You've been like a mother to me and I thank you. You helped me become the man I am today. From the day you challenged me to learn the Rasengan to the day you passed on the title of Hokage to me, I thank you. I know I was an annoying kid,"_

_"Which never changed," she laughed as her eyes began to fill with tears. He laughed with her, the tears gathering his eyes too._

"_But, I think without me your life as Hokage would've been pretty boring. I really am going to never forget you."_

_He got up and walked over to her and gave her a strong, loving hug. As he began to pull back she gave him a jab on his shoulder, "You better not forget me brat. And I want my monument polished everyday! I don't care how much it costs the village. That pretty face of mine better be spick and span! Those genin are going to learn discipline one way or another!" _

_She wiped away the tears from her eyes. Naruto really had become a man. She never really looked at him the way she was looking at him now. He was obviously taller, more muscular, but that wasn't what she noticed. It was what she saw in his eyes, that same look that she catch a slight glimpse of when he as a child, had become permanent. He had a permanent sense of compassion and determination just like his father did. She knew that there were no better hands to leave the village in but his._

"_Where is Sakura?" she inquired. She had almost forgotten about her star student. _

"_She's on an S-rank mission in Iwagakure gathering information on the Yonbi and Gobi. Both her and Yamato are leading an eight man squad."_

"_That's my girl. Taking the forefront," she smiled. "I'm going to leave her a letter and Katsuyu's summoning scroll. I promised her that before I die, I would leave her the secret to my Mitotic Regeneration technique. Send that same genin team you sent to my house last time to gather the stuff."_

"_You act like you know you're not coming back. You've got years of chakra stored in that seal of yours!"_

"_Enough to take away the little life I have left," she grinned.  
---_

She began dressing herself in the same uniform she had worn during the Second Great Shinobi War. She stunned herself thinking about the fact that she had lived through three shinobi wars. It was past her time to leave the world she knew. As she was getting dressed she heard a knock at the door.

"She's probably not home," said a young voice from outside the door.

"The Godaime is old! She probably can't hear us!" said a young girl.

She walked to the door and swung it open with a large amount of force.

"I've got ears like a cat kid," she had nearly scared the pants off the little genin.

"We're sorry Godaime-sama! We didn't know you could hear us!" said the girl.

"You never know who's around. Be careful with what you say because the walls have ears," she smiled and tapped the girl on the head. "What kind of shinobi do you want to be girl?"

"M-my name is Suki in case you were wondering, but I want to be a medic-nin."

"I had a feeling you would say that. Who do you look up to as an idol?" she wanted to see if the newest generation still knew about her.

"Well I know that you're the most renowned medic around Godaime-sama, but I really look up to Konoha's Healing Blossom, Haruno Sakura!" she said with enthusiasm.

"It's understandable; she's younger and more beautiful. Oh if I was still her age," Tsunade sighed.

"I think your beautiful Tsunade-sama," said the third genin.

"Why thank you. I appreciate you saying that," she felt a lump in her throat. She didn't know what to say.

"Listen here Suki-chan, I want you to have this," Tsunade handed the aspiring medic a medical kit. "That was one of my first medical kits and it has my name in it. When you return to the Hokage, I want you tell him that I'm ordering him to have you take lessons under Haruno Sakura when she gets back from her mission. She will see that you become a successful medic. Tell her that I want you in the upcoming Medical corp. Don't forget anything I'm telling you Suki-chan, it's really important!"

"Understood Godaime-sama!"

Tsunade handed the group of genin the letter for Sakura and Katsuyu's summoning contract.

"If you lose any of these things, I'll haunt you in your dreams!" said Tsunade, trying to instill fear in the poor genin. "And make sure to tell the Hokage that I said that I love him."

"Hai!"

* * *

"Hokage-sama! I have direct orders from the Godaime!" yelled Suki as she ran into Naruto's office. "But before I forget, she told us to tell you that, well-she loves you! It didn't come from me! I don't want Hinata-san chasing me down or anything like that."

Naruto chuckled and under his breath he said, "I love you too Granny."

He'd miss the woman he'd grown to love like a mother. Konoha just wouldn't be the same without her.

* * *

**A/N:**I hope you guys enjoyed seeing Zetsu. It was pretty fun writing him, yet difficult at the same time. I didn't really put him in any of the battle scenes because we don't really know what his battle abilities are yet and I didn't want to contradict the manga too much. I also decided to bring him in while the gang was in Kusa since around the fan-circuit most people believe him to be from Kusa due to his plant-like appearance. He might even have a connection with Sayuri-chan. Wowowowowowowowowowowowowowo. I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out. hehehehe. Don't forget to leave me any suggestions for Sayuri-chan's teammates. I have a slight writer's block when it comes to her sensei/teammates.


	9. The Speed of Sound

**Chapter 8:**

**A/N: **Hello everyone! Welcome to the latest installment of _Root: The Kazegan_! I'm glad to say that I really like this chapter. It's a chapter FULL of battle scenes all thanks to Team 4! Something really bad happens to one of our heroes in this chapter. I can't say who or what happens, you'll just have to read to find out what happens! Also, I'm still looking for suggestions on abilities for Sayuri-chan's teammates. I want some cool jutsu/ideas or them so if you have any please let me know in a **review!** I'm actually pretty happy with the reviews, I got a few more which were really flattering by **Nufunoke**(Hope I spelled that right) Thanks a lot for those! I hope that we can hit 20 reviews this chapter, I'd really love that! I really want to know how you guys feel about how the story is going! I personally love it but that's a biased opinion*grins*. If you see anything that's wrong or shouldn't be there or you feel that is plain stupid, let me know! Even if it's a grammar/spelling problem, don't hesitate to tell me because I'll fix it. Don't forget to leave me any ideas for Sayuri-chan's teammates! If you don't remember her go back a few chapters and read about her! She's Inokuza-kun's crush!

Anyway here it is, _Root: The Kazegan_!

* * *

"That's the village up ahead," said Hitomi. The wind was picking up around the village and Hitomi felt her long, black bangs flow with the wind. She felt like the wind was sending her a sign.

"Make sure you on full alert. I have a bad feeling," she suggested to the group.

As Team 4 got nearer, they got a better view of the village. It seemed to be quite small. From where they were standing, they couldn't see any buildings or homes which stood above two stories. They could see the whole landscape of the village from end to end. They continued to walk and as the trees of the forest cleared, they could see that the village was surrounded by vast lily fields. It was apparent that they were nearing the border of the Land of Rice Fields.

"Everything seems to be calm," said Yokama.

"Too calm," replied Inokuza.

"Proceed with caution. Be prepared to react to anything," warned Hitomi. She had to worry about the safety of her team and her own now. She should've just asked for an easier mission as their first.

The group walked nonchalantly into the village. Each one of them walking with their hands by their sides; ready to react at anytime. Hitomi saw some villagers gathered around a small fire to their left. She began walking towards them.

"Hello, my name is Hijiri Hitomi, jonin of Konohagakure, and this is my genin team," she motioned for a hand shake from one of the men. "We are here investigating a recent report of former Sound operatives disrupting your village."

One of the men on the opposite side of the fire where she was standing spoke up, "I suggest you leave girl. Take those kids and get out of here before they find you."

"Excuse me?" said Hitomi, confused. "We're here to help you."

"They told us that if anyone came here trying to help, we were to tell them to leave and that there was no trouble here. They threatened our families, our friends. They promised that if we cooperated, no harm would come to anyone."

"Cooperate how?" Takeru spoke up.

"They needed somewhere to stay and they took over our village. After Konoha defeated their leader, they had nowhere to go so they came here. They said there was too much going on in the Land of Rice Fields for them to go back," the man cut himself off realizing he had said too much. "Now I've told you everything I can! Please leave before they see!" urged the man.

"I'm sorry but we're not going anywhere," said Hitomi.

"At least get away from us then! I don't want anything happening to my family!" yelled the man. The other people sitting around the fire just sat there silently, staring at the pile of embers.

"You made a mistake by talking old man," said a shadowy figure. He began to walk out of a nearby house's shadow and two other shinobi appeared next to him.

"I strongly suggest that you Konoha shinobi leave. You're greatly outnumbered," snickered the man.

"Let us get at them boss. We owe them for what they did to us," said the man to his right.

"I want a go with the blonde boy. He's got a cute little face I wouldn't mind tearing up," said a woman's voice to the man's left.

The apparent boss walked up behind the man they had just been talking to and grabbed him by his collar, "You made a big mistake old man. I told you not to talk."

"I swear Shiki, I was trying to get them to leave! I didn't mean to tell them all of that, I swear!" pleaded the old man.

"Too late," said Shiki as he raised his hand prepared to beat the man. Hitomi quickly lunged for Shiki's arm and tackled him to the ground.

Yokama quickly performed a set of seals and targeted the two other figures, "_Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique!"_ By the time she completed her jutsu, the two figures were gone. She suddenly felt a warm breath on her back and quickly performed a substitution jutsu with one of the logs in the villager's fire.

Inokuza motioned for the villager's to clear out. He used his hands and formed a rectangle around the image of the man who had tried to attack Yokama and unleashed his jutsu, "_Ninja Art: Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu!"_

The man fell to his knees and began slamming his arms against the ground believing it to be some sort of enemy.

"Quick Takeru! Disable him!" yelled Inokuza. Takeru began running towards the possessed man but before he could reach him he felt a crushing force on his back which brought him straight to the ground. She turned his body and he looked up to see a woman with a Sound headband around her forehead with a slash through it. He tried to perform a substitution but she restrained his arms using her knees.

"Sorry cutie, you're not going anywhere," she grinned. She made a hand seal and performed a jutsu, "_Demonic Art: Death's Kiss." _She reached in for a kiss on Takeru's cheek but she felt two soft fingers on the back of her neck.

"_Demonic Illusion: Realm of Darkness" _whispered Yokama. "_Welcome to my world."_

* * *

Yokama was able to make direct contact with her target's neck, making her genjutsu twice as effective if it were done from a distance. She had sent an impulse of chakra through the woman's brain and completely trapped her in one of her most powerful illusions. In her realm, she could create any illusion she wanted.

"Kai!" she heard the woman yell.

"Kai!"

"Kai!"

"_Kai!" _she screamed helplessly.

"Let me out of this you little bitch! Can't face me on your own can you?" yelled Ayumi as she stood in a world overcome by darkness.

"Yes I can Ayumi," said Yokama through an image of herself. "Show me what you got."

"How did you know my name?" demanded Ayumi.

"I'm in your head. I can find out anything I want,"

Ayumi stared straight at her with intent to kill. She checked her belt for her equipment pouches and found nothing.

"I took your weapons," Yokama smiled.

Ayumi charged at her and attempted to punch her but the fake Yokama simply drifted away into the darkness. Two more images of Yokama appeared beside Ayumi and she again tried to attack them; only resulting in each of them drifting back into the darkness.

"This is an illusion. I need to focus! You can't fool me you Leaf scum!" yelled Ayumi.

"Fine. If you think you have a better chance at me in person. Go ahead," said Yokama's voice. "Kai!"

She created an illusion of the village within the woman's mind using the last memory Ayumi had of it. Yokama began to make it seem more believable.

"Yokama behind you!" yelled Inokuza's voice. The woman turned around to see an image of Yokama getting tackled to the ground by one of her comrades. Believing the Yokama in front of her to be real, she began punching her in the face. Yokama made everything Ayumi was hitting feel real. Unbeknownst to Ayumi though, what she was punching was the ground. Every punch she gave was getting her one step closer to breaking her hands.

"Bitch!" yelled Ayumi. "I told you I would kick your ass!" The Yokama in front of her became a puff of smoke and appeared behind her once again kicking her in the head. In reality, Yokama was really kicking her in the head; the action making the illusion seem real.

"_Demonic Illusion: Haunted Binding" _whispered Yokama.

The woman hadn't heard her say anything from within the illusion but Yokama made it seem as if she were performing a real jutsu. As the woman lay on the ground, a man and woman rose from the ground to bind her.

"Mother…Father…" murmured Ayumi. "You witch! You're no better than Lord Kabuto, bringing back our loved ones to haunt us!"

"I'm only doing to you what you're doing to these innocent people—making you suffer," said Yokama coldly.

Yokama withdrew a kunai and stabbed the woman in the shoulder. Within her illusion, all the woman would be feeling is pain. The next thing Yokama knew, she heard a scream coming from her left. It was Inokuza getting flanked by two other Sound shinobi. She looked for Takeru and saw him facing off with the man Inokuza had launched a spirit into before.

She sent one last wave of chakra through Ayumi to keep her illusion going before leaving her to bleed to death. As Yokama charged towards the men attacking Inokuza, she looked to her right to see Hitomi facing off with their leader.

* * *

"_Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu," _yelled Hitomi as a giant fireball emerged from her mouth. It raced towards Shiki but he substituted before it hit him causing the rubble behind him to catch on fire. Her eyes quickly caught a glimpse of something behind her and she quickly dropped the ground attempting to sweep whoever was behind her.

As she spun she saw that it was Shiki who had jumped into the air right before she made contact with him. As he was midair he performed a set of hand seals and yelled, "_Sound Wave Collision!"_

A sudden ear shattering force overcame Hitomi as she was blown to the ground by the overwhelming force of Shiki's jutsu. She felt a vibration in her ear which seemed to keep her off balance. She shook her head to snap out of it but was kicked square in the head by Shiki.

"Silly girl, I told you to leave," she barely heard Shiki.

Hitomi stood up and charged at Shiki with devastating speed. Shiki took a defense stance as he and Hitomi engaged—kunai to kunai. Hitomi using her free arm punched Shiki in the gut causing him to hunch over and as he grabbed his stomach, she kneed him straight in the jaw causing him to fall backwards onto the ground. While on the ground, he quickly threw a trio of shuriken at her but with her eyes it seemed like he was doing it all in slow motion. She easily contorted to avoid each of the shuriken and leapt into the air to land a drop kick right on the man's ribs. She heard a cracking sound and smiled.

* * *

Inokuza didn't have enough time to use any of his jutsu so he had to rely solely on his taijutsu alone to survive his two attackers. They made slow, sloppy movements which he easily avoided. They couldn't be anywhere above genin level with that form. He dodged one of the genin's punches and landed his own right across one of their faces. The one he had punched had a large scar across the side of his face that had been hit which went from the end of his mouth to his ear.

The other genin who had a Sound bandana wrapped around his head withdrew two knives and began to launch a flurry of attacks which Inokuza substituted out of. When he reappeared he was beside Yokama who was already running to his aid.

"They are just some little weaklings. No need to waste your time casting an illusion on them Yokama," said Inokuza, provoking his two opponents.

"I wasn't going to Inokuza. I kind of feel bad for that one with the scar," she giggled.

"Fuck you bitch," yelled the scarred one. He stood up and from his belt withdrew a scroll. "I didn't think we'd have to get serious on you brats."

He unraveled it on the ground and slammed his hands onto it which made a meter long bell mace appear. The shaft was the same as an average mace but instead of a metal head at the end, it had a giant round bell on it. It had various holes all around which were most likely to emit sound.

The scarred shinobi picked it up and began running at Inokuza and Yokama alongside his bladed friend.

* * *

Takeru was having trouble fighting the Sound goon. After Yokama took over fighting the woman, he took up fighting the other man beside the leader.

He was well above genin level and had pretty good speed. Takeru had already activated his chakra scalpels to fend the man off.

"Were you the brat that corrupted my mind?" he yelled as Takeru dodged one of the man's kicks. He attempted to swipe the man's ankle with his chakra scalpel but the man retracted his leg before he could.

"Do I look like the kind of shinobi who could do that," scoffed Takeru as he waved his glowing hands. "Dumb ass."

"You're going to regret that kid," warned his opponent. "I'm going to kill you for talking to me like that and I want you to know my name before I tear your body piece to piece."

Takeru stood in a defensive stance. The man pointed his hands at Takeru and revealed two air tubes in the middle of his palms.

"It's Akihito."

Takeru was about to leap out of the way but he hadn't made it out of the way in time. He just couldn't move at the speed of sound.

"_Extreme Decapitating Air Waves!"_

_

* * *

_Hitomi was barely able to stand up due to aftermath of the enormous explosion of energy. Shiki seemed to be unconscious; she had just broken at least one of his ribs. She looked around to find the cause of the explosion and all she saw was the completely devastated body of Takeru. The next thing she knew she was seeing black.

* * *

Inokuza and Yokama were blown back by the force of some kind of jutsu. It hadn't come from their opponents so it had to have been from either Hitomi or Takeru's opponent. They had crashed into a nearby house leaving an indent in the stone. Yokama stood up holding her back and Inokuza looked around to see what caused the blast. Both of their opponents seemed unfazed by the blast and stood there laughing at something in the distance. Inokuza looked and he saw the last thing he ever wanted to see.

"Yokama. Whatever you do, please don't look ahead," pleaded Inokuza. The next thing he heard was a devastating shriek and the overzealous laughter of their opponents.

* * *

"Yokama this is an emergency situation. You need to use everything you've got to cover this whole vicinity in an illusion. I've got to get Takeru to safety. I can barely sense his chakra signature," said Inokuza as he focused on his comrade's dwindling chakra signature.

Yokama was still in tears as she took a knee, closed her eyes and put her hands into a chakra concentration seal. Once her chakra was focused, she began the long sequence of hand seals for her jutsu. She could hear the faint sound of a bell but didn't pay any attention to it. She had to try and get all three of the Sound shinobi into her illusion without them noticing. It would take a lot of chakra for her to get all three of them in it and if any of them broke out she might not have enough chakra to get them back in. The best thing for her to do was to try and create an exact copy of the village in their minds so they wouldn't notice and then layer another illusion over the other so that if they did notice her second genjutsu, they wouldn't realize they were actually within two genjutsu, layered on top of each other.

She heard the sound of the bell again and a large crashing sound. She opened her eyes and saw that the two ninja from before were attacking Inokuza. Now she had to save him too.

* * *

Inokuza looked around for Hitomi and saw her unconscious in front of the enemy leader. Now he had to rescue Hitomi on top of Takeru—the latter being the priority. The next thing he knew he was being charged at by the two shinobi from before. The one with the giant bell mace was slamming it against the ground causing a shockwave of sound to shatter a path in front of the crash.

"Like my toy?" asked the bell wielder.

"Can I play with it?" asked Inokuza.

"Sure. I just can't guarantee you surviving."

Inokuza was roughly 4 meters away from the two shinobi. He had to activate his jutsu before either one of them reached him, "_Ninja Art: Mind Body Disturbance Jutsu!"_

Inokuza focused the spirit into the shinobi wielding two daggers who was moving a lot less than the bell-wielding shinobi. He could tell that there was a difference in the shinobi's face and gave a slight grin knowing the other shinobi wouldn't be expecting his attack.

The possessed Sound ninja hadn't yet made his attack and the other was already in range of Inokuza. As he brought down his bell Inokuza jumped out of the way to avoid the blast from his weapon. The shockwave had nearly hit Yokama but it seemed like her concentration wasn't broken. He had to lure them away from Yokama. He looked around trying to find a place to lure them and all he saw was the devil who had fought Takeru. He needed to stay away from him or else he'd have to deal with three shinobi.

Unfortunately, Takeru's attacker noticed him and began running in his direction. From the other direction, his former opponent was chasing him, slamming his weapon as he went. Inokuza didn't know why his jutsu hadn't worked on the other shinobi. He looked for him and saw him behind his comrade struggling to take control of his body. Inokuza made a rectangular hand seal around the body of the man and sent a jolt of his chakra in his direction. Almost immediately, the man stood and began to run after his former teammate.

Inokuza blinked and the possessed shinobi was on top of his comrade stabbing both of his shoulders. It was as if the man teleported onto his comrade's body.

"Akira! What are you thinking?" yelled the betrayed genin. Inokuza turned and he was facing Takeru's attacker. He stood there like a stone statue.

* * *

"_Demonic Illusion: Advanced False Surroundings Technique!" _whispered Yokama. She sent out a giant ripple of her chakra reaching far enough to catch three shinobi in her illusion. Once she was sure she succeeded in creating an exact duplicate of the village in their minds, she immediately started forming another set of hand seals, panting as she went, "_Genjutsu: Haze!"_

She created a copy of herself in each of her victim's minds. While they were busy fighting her clones, they wouldn't notice the fact that they were trapped in an illusion. After she was done, she ran over to Inokuza's side who was staring Takeru's attacker straight in the eyes.

"Seems like I got him right in the nick of time," said Yokama, barely able to form a grin.

"We have to get to Takeru,"

"Right," replied Yokama as she and Inokuza ran over to his side. She looked down at his barely breathing body and couldn't help but see the wear and tear it had gone through. His clothes were ripped, his arm seemed to be out of place, and he had scratches and gashes all over his face, arms, and legs due to the impact with the ground.

"My god," Yokama gasped.

"He's breathing," said Inokuza as he lifted his hand from Takeru's neck. "There seems to be nothing irregular about his pulse. He probably suffered a concussion from the impact and is unconscious."

"Thank god! I really thought-"

"Don't say it. I tried very hard not to consider it. We have to get him help as soon as possible. Who knows what kind of injuries he could have suffered internally. We need to have him undergo a check up by a medic-nin."

"Where is Hitomi-sama with that scroll the Rokudaime gave her?"

"She's dead," said a familiar voice. Both Yokama and Inokuza turned around and they were facing the man who was in charge of their attackers, Shiki.

"Where is she?" demanded Inokuza.

"You shouldn't be worrying about that. You should be worrying about how bad I'm going to kick your asses."

"Tell us where she us!" said Yokama as she lunged towards Shiki. Yokama pulled out two kunai and launched them at Shiki.

"_Sound Wave Collision," _said Shiki as he completed his jutsu. The jutsu sent a shattering wave of sound towards Yokama, disrupting the path of her two kunai.

"Lord Kabuto was kind enough to teach me many of his unique jutsu. Luckily for you guys, before I could learn his final technique, the attack on Konoha started."

Inokuza quickly ran to Yokama's side and helped her up. She was holding her head, barely able to stand; most likely dizzy from the blast. He put his arm around her neck and helped her stand.

"Ino-kun, just leave me here and make a run for it. Find Hitomi-san while I hold him off," pleaded Yokama.

"I can't do that Yokama. I'm not leaving you here. We're going to make it out of here alive," said Inokuza, trying to comfort Yokama.

"Idiots. I'm going to end your pain here and now. You killed my woman, injured my men and no one gets away with that. I thought after Akihito taught your friend a little lesson, you would run off and try to find help, but no. You stayed here like idiots, running to your deaths. You two made your death bed and now you're going to lay in it!" screamed Shiki as he unleashed another earth-shattering blast. Inokuza and Yokama closed their eyes and held each other tight, waiting for whatever came next.

* * *

Hitomi quickly got up and ran towards Yokama and Inokuza. She was moving as fast as she could, hoping to save her teammates from any danger. As she was about to reach them, she saw Shiki form a hand seal and unleash another blast of sound. She tackled Yokama and Inokuza, who were holding each other tightly, and tried her best to get them out of the way of the blast.

She laid over their bodies, covering them from any danger. When she felt the shockwave pass, she got to her feet and looked at Shiki.

"Nice try idiot. You should have finished me off when you had the chance," scoffed Hitomi.

"I thought you were dead!" screamed Shiki, confused.

"You think a nice little tickle to my ear drum is going to kill me? You forgot that we are Konoha shinobi," said Hitomi as she ran towards Shiki. She promised herself that he wasn't going to get one hit in on her. She watched as he began another set of hand seals and she dashed to the left with astonishing speed. It was too easy to anticipate her opponent's attacks when she could see them so easily with her eyes.

Once she was on Shiki's side she let out her jutsu, "_Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!" _Once again a ball of fire emerged from her mouth and made direct contact with Shiki's right arm as he tried to dodge the fireball's path. Without hesitating she ran towards him again wanting to engage him in a taijutsu battle.

She jumped in the air and spun as she dashed towards Shiki midair with a kunai in each hand. She launched them at him as he substituted out of their path and she substituted also, anticipating his counterattack. They both appeared face to face, 3 meters away from each other. She ran towards him and swung at his face, he dodged and tried to uppercut her but she saw it coming and grabbed his fist and twisted his already burnt arm, causing a cracking sound.

"How can you move so quickly?" pleaded Shiki. "It's not possible to move that fast and predict my attacks the way you are!"

"Apparently it is," said Hitomi as she threw him to the ground. She made three quick hand seals ending in a tiger seal and held out her palm, "_Fire Release: Incineration Palm Jutsu!" _She slammed her open palm, flaring with a coat of fire over it, straight into his chest which sent a flurry of flames through his body, burning everything inside of him.

* * *

"We need to get Takeru medical attention immediately," said Hitomi. She took out the scroll Naruto had given her and opened it on the ground.

"What are you going to do with them," asked Hitomi to Yokama as she pointed to the three shinobi in her illusion.

"I'm going to try and dispose of them all at once," stuttered Yokama.

Hitomi, sensing her teammate's hesitance, offered her some help, "If you want, I'll do it Yokama."

"No. I have to do it Hijiri-san. It is my duty as a shinobi," said Yokama sternly.

* * *

Yokama walked over to the center of the three shinobi and focused her chakra. Within her illusion, she made her clones, which still hadn't been dispelled by any of the three shinobi, lure the three of them to her. Once they were all in position, Yokama attached exploding tags to each of their chests. She set two on the ground just in case they somehow survived the first blast. She walked back over to Hitomi and looked at her before she activated the five tags she had set. The explosion was quite enormous, causing a giant crater in the ground after, and leaving pieces of the former Sound shinobi's bodies littering the ground.

* * *

**A/N**: I think I'm gon to drop the whole Fin! thing at the end of the chapters. I'm going to back and edit out. Anyway hope you liked the chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it! Don't forget to REVIEW! Read what I said in the Author's Notes at the beginning! I need ideas for Sayuri-chan's team! I'm planning on introducing the other two team members soon so please, give me some ideas! Haha anyway, next chapter we find out what's wrong with Takeru. Don't worry he's not going to die.............yet. Also, next chapter we're going to check up on the Eight Man Squad and see what they're up to! Gotta love that Eight Man Squad of Konoha's elite shinobi! OoOoOOooO Gikaru-kun you're in for a lot these next chapters! I guess you guys are just going to have to read if you want to find out what happens! Happy Easter everyone and don't forget to review!!


	10. Rats and Spices

**Chapter 9:**

**A/N:** Hello there everyone! It has been a while since I've updated(sorry about that!). I've been really busy with school so I've had to focus on that for a while, but school is almost over so do not fret my loyal readers! There are some things I need to address though. I'm considering changing the name of the story to any of the following titles: _Naruto: The Root Chronicles, The Root Chronicles, Root, Konoha's Answer: Root_ or something a reader can come up with. If you come up with a good title to rename the story, let me know in a review! I've decided to change the name of the story(If everyone is okay with that, or else I wont change it) because I think as I've been writing the story, the focus of it has changed. At first the story was going to be mainly from Gikaru's point of view, but it has changed to include both him, his team, and in the near future(possibly), other members of Root. Also, the story is revolved around his Kazegan so I wouldn't want to scare people off by thinking the story is about some crazed dojutsu(which it is not). Also, I am in search of a Beta. If you would like to Beta for me, let me know through a PM(I LOVE THE NEW SYSTEM) or a review. Lastly, if anyone wants to do some fanart, that would be awesome. I'll be willing to send you a description of the character you are interested in drawing. I myself would love to see it :D! Anyway this chapter is kinda funny and there is some stuff you could consider fluff in it(not really, but kind of). Here it is then guys, the newest installment of _Root: The Kazegan!(_for now)

* * *

"Naruto sent back a reply," announced Miyuki as the team leaped through the forest. It had been about three hours since she sent the message and the team was questioning whether or not the message had arrived. Sakura motioned for the group to stop and they all leapt down onto the main path. Sakura found a spot where the Moon shone a decent amount of light on them and they opened Miyuki's scroll.

"_Thanks for the update Miyuki. I was dealing with another team's problems and I had to dispatch a support squad. Took quite a bit of time but now I'm able to respond to you. Hopefully, you guys didn't leave anyone alive or let anyone escape. We don't need Iwa having the heads up on our arrival. You guys need to be as discreet as possible. As much as I'd like to help out the village—it is not our responsibility. In my opinion, the best thing to do would to be to somehow dispatch a message to Kusa and have them deal with it. As for the remainder of the mission, continue on with the plan and let me know of any new developments. Good luck!" _

After the enthusiastic Hokage's voice faded from the tiny toad, Sakura spoke up, "Well there you go, lets continue on."

"My clone just dispelled itself. It has delivered the message and their leader has assured me that they will be sending back up to the village," said Yamato.

"That's good to hear but we need to get back on schedule," said Sakura.

"Sakura!" whined Kiba.

"I don't want to hear it Kiba! The border is up ahead and I plan on making it well into the Land of Earth before sunrise," barked Haruno, once again.

"Whatever Sakura," shrugged Kiba.

Sakura leapt back onto the trees and they all got into formation. Gikaru was tired but he didn't feel like arguing with the cherry blossom. She had quite a temper and if she could deal with the Uchiha-hime, she'd be able to deal with the people on this team with no problem.

Gikaru began to think about his pupils as he jumped from tree to tree. He wondered if any of them had gone to see their families—minus Takeru. Inokuza's parents were most likely around or tending to one of their family's businesses. Yokama's parents, who weren't shinobi, were without a doubt in Konoha. They had no business leaving Konoha since their whole life was in the enormous village. They owned a quaint clothes shop where Yokama had worked before she became a shinobi.

Apparently, Hinata had dragged Naruto into their shop trying to buy him a pair of clothes which didn't have orange on it and the moment they walked into the store Naruto sensed a very potent chakra signature. It was a large amount of a chakra for the average person, average for a shinobi, but the amount of chakra wasn't what he sensed; he sensed the fact that it was under extreme control. He walked around the store until he found its source, which turned out to be, Aomori Yokama.

He asked Hinata to look at the girl's chakra circulatory system and she saw that it had enormous capacity. Hinata told Naruto that the girl would have a very easy time molding chakra and that she should be a shinobi. Naruto then approached the girl, who had a strange look on her face, and asked to speak to her parents.

As for Takeru, his story was an extremely sad one. He came from a shinobi background; neither of his parents ever accomplishing anything special. They had both barely achieved chunin level and worked as patrols around the village. The day he entered the academy, his mother was sent on her first mission outside the village. The Godaime told his mother that her analytical skills were needed for a reconnaissance mission. Apparently, his mother was adept in detecting genjutsu.

During her mission, she was killed by a group of rogue ninja. When his father received the news, he began to change. The man began to take out his pain on his son by hitting him in drunken rages or cursing him when he was frustrated. Soon after, the Godaime noticed the man's change in personality and discharged him as a shinobi due to a fragile emotional state.

Takeru, who was nine at the time, pledged to become a medic-nin so that he could heal people who suffered. He devoted his time in the academy to researching medical techniques and ways to refine his chakra and control it well. As he grew though, so did his father's punishments. His father would beat him more and lock him inside his room. Eventually Takeru's mental state was weakened also and the instructors at the academy noticed and made a report the Hokage. The report was made right around the same time Root was commissioned so she added him to the program so that she could refine his skills and get him away from his father.

His father was told that Takeru was being taken away due to physical and mental abuse and that the custody of Takeru was to be determined by the Hokage. Since that day, his father nor Takeru have tried to find each other.

Gikaru was interrupted from his thoughts by the Haruno girl, "We're officially crossing the border. Welcome to the Land of Earth."

"About time!" shouted Kiba. His nin-dog barked in agreement.

"How far to the closest town Haruno?" asked Kisame.

"About 30 minutes if we keep this pace."

"Good, I need a good night's sleep," said Kisame with a sigh of relief.

"But, were not stopping," said Haruno much to the group's surprise. Both Kiba and Kisame's eyes nearly popped out of their heads.

"May I ask why we aren't stopping?" asked Kurenai.

"We just finished killing a strike team of Iwa shinobi. I'd rather let the aftershock die down a bit before a large group of suspicious 'merchants' arrives in a village not too long after."

"I guess they would notice if a bunch of shinobi just never came back," pouted Kiba.

"However, I do want to make some observations of the town," Kiba's eyes brightened up. His pet began to wag its tongue. "I want to know if the rumor of the Tsuchikage stationing teams of shinobi in every little town is true. Apparently, due to the Land of Earth being enormous, the Tsuchikage decided that it would be very difficult to defend his outer villages with the main hidden village being far away from the borders. As a result, he supposedly stationed teams of shinobi in every town in order to serve as a protective measure and a warning of any intruders to the main village."

"I believe it would be best for one person to go in the town and gather supplies. I don't know about you guys but I prefer not to be living off this canned food and ramen," Gikaru added.

"I'M DOING IT!" yelled the Inuzuka.

* * *

Kiba had disguised himself as a middle-aged nomad; it was actually pretty believable. He left Akamaru behind due to the fact that it would draw too much attention. He kept the same backpack he carried while he was traveling, but replaced his black ninja suit with a long grey robe with a white undershirt. As for his face, he replaced his black scruffy hair with long brown hair. He gave himself a more defined nose and pointier jaw. To him, this was the look of a worn down man.

He walked into the village with his head down. He tried his hardest to hide his chakra signature. The transformation jutsu constantly emitted chakra, so he had to keep the chakra emission as low as possible. Even the slightest jump in his chakra levels and he would be detected and the situation would get messy.

He kept his arms on his backpack straps and began walking towards the marketplace of the town. It was still early and the Sun was slowly rising in the morning sky. He raised his head and watched the sky as he walked. The sunrise in this town was awfully similar to the one in Konoha.

The sunrise was always something Kiba enjoyed watching. It gave his body its constant flow of energy. It was as if the sun rising had a direct effect on his spirit.

Kiba suddenly felt something, or someone, slam into his right arm. He looked to his right and realized he had run into a shinobi; an Iwa shinobi!

"I-I'm sorry sir," he stuttered. If he didn't have to keep up his disguise, he would be kicking this guy's ass for walking into him, "I was just paying attention to the sunrise and didn't notice where I was walking."

"Watch where you're walking next time idiot," the ninja grunted. As the shinobi walked away, Kiba cursed him under his breath.

"What was that old-man?" The shinobi yelled. _Shit._

"I didn't say anything sir," pleaded Kiba.

"I'm pretty sure you said something you sack of bones." He walked up to Kiba and pushed him to the ground. Kiba growled and caught the man's attention.

"Did you want to do something, old-man?"

"Kiba-kun! What have you gotten yourself into?" yelled a blonde haired, middle-aged woman who was running in Kiba's direction. She ran to his side and lifted his neck. "I'm really sorry mister. My husband can be so absent minded."

"I was just about to—," said Kiba as his 'wife' slapped her hand onto his mouth. The woman had jet black hair which was about shoulder length. She had green eyes and a long brown coat that covered her mouth and a pair of baggy pants. This woman's attire was similar to the girl on his team; the medic.

"You're lucky you came to your poor old man's rescue," said the Iwa shinobi as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her towards him. "It's a shame. You're a cute little thing. He probably can't keep up with you, can he?"

The very moment the jerk from Stone touched her shoulder, Kiba saw the expression on her face change. He could tell she was holding back from doing something. But, the moment he implied what he implied, he could tell she couldn't hold back anymore.

"Alright asshole, I thought I was being helpful but pieces of shit like you just don't deserve any pity," said the woman as she cranked her arm back and slammed her fist into the man's cheek. Kiba saw the man quickly hit the ground from the force of her blow.

"Are you crazy bitch?" The shinobi stood up grabbing the left side of his face. The woman didn't wait for the man to respond. She swept his feet from under him and slammed her fist once again into his ribs. She then took her right elbow and dropped her whole body, elbow first, into his neck.

"That should keep him from talking like that," said the woman coldly. "Let's go _honey." _

As the 'married couple' walked away, he saw the man squirming on the ground holding his neck, gasping for air.

"What did you do?" asked Kiba to the strange woman.

"I taught him a lesson."

* * *

As Kiba walked with the woman, he found out that it was Yamamoto Miyuki who had saved him. He didn't really know the girl, but she seemed pretty nice. As they walked, he realized she was very reserved. Nice, but reserved.

They were on their way to the marketplace to pick up the materials they needed. Kiba kept his nose perked for the scent of any shinobi who might be following them in case someone suspected anything about the beating of the Stone shinobi.

"Why did they send you after me anyway?" asked Kiba.

"Does it bother you that I came?" replied Miyuki feeling insulted.

"No no! It's not that, I just want to know why they didn't think I could handle it on my own. I am a jounin you know," said Kiba frantically. He didn't want to meet the same fate as the last guy.

"Apparently you couldn't handle it yourself," Miyuki giggled.

"I had that situation under control!"

"I bet you did."

"I did!"

"I didn't say you didn't."

"But you implied it!"

"No I didn't."

"Ahhhhh! Whatever."

"Sakura-senpai is somewhere around here too. She's just observing though and seeing how many shinobi are around," Miyuki added.

They walked up to the first food stand they found. The marketplace was already full of people. The sun had barely risen but people were already out and about. Chatting, shopping, and hanging out. They had no idea what was going around in the ninja world around them. Wars that could start at any given moment, they were oblivious to. They didn't seem to care that there were almost no guards around to protect them in case of an attack.

Miyuki started picking out a variety of fruits and paid the vendor. They then kept on walking and went over to a meat vendor.

"What kind of meat should we get Kiba," she asked.

"Huh?" responded Kiba, his head still in the clouds. "Beef. We can make BBQ beef."

"Oh really Mr. Chef? And who is going to cook this, BBQ Beef?"

"Sakura-chan of course! She's a great cook."

"Sakura-senpai is not going to want to cook you your meals Kiba."

"She loves cooking. Uchiha told me," he grinned.

"I'll take three pounds of beef, six steaks, and five racks of ribs."

"I'm-so-hungry!" Kiba exclaimed.

"Thank you very much sir," said Miyuki as she took the massive amount of food from the merchant. She handed the load to Kiba who had a disappointed look on his face.

"Why do I have to carry it?" he whined.

"Because it's proper etiquette."

"Alright," Kiba sighed as Miyuki handed him the groceries. Every sentence Miyuki muttered was quick and to the point. It could be seen as rude, but Kiba found it funny. It was a nifty little personality quirk.

"So why am I here exactly?" complained Kiba as they walked through the stands of the marketplace. The Sun was rising a little bit more in the sky every time he looked up.

"To carry the groceries," said Miyuki as she handed a vendor money for some vegetables.

"I, Inuzuka Kiba, jounin of Konohagakure, am carrying groceries! I should have a genin team doing this me!"

"Pretend that you're my genin team," Miyuki mustered a small grin.

"Was that a smile I saw?" teased Kiba.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Miyuki kept on walking, her face returning to its normal serious glare.

"How much longer till we're done? These bags are getting heavy," Kiba had bags of food drooping all along his arms.

"Just go back to camp. I can get the last few things myself."

"Are you sure?"

Miyuki, not responding, turned around and kept walking through the marketplace. "She's a special one," Kiba thought.

* * *

Gikaru heard rustling in the bushes. He stood up and scanned the forest around him. He looked at Hinata and pointed to his ear trying to tell her he heard something. Hinata put her hands in a seal and activated her Byakugan.

A second later she spoke, "It's just Kiba-kun Gikaru-san." Kiba walked out from the bushes as Gikaru sat back down.

"You almost got killed you know," stated Gikaru.

"How'd you know?" he asked with a look of surprise.

"You weren't following me in the wind or anything like that were you?" he asked.

"I thought you were an enemy and almost attacked you," Gikaru rolled his glowing, yellow eyes. "What are _you_ talking about?"

"First of all, where is everyone else? And where is Akamaru?" wondered Kiba as he looked around the small clearing they were camping in. "Did everyone abandon you and Hinata?"

"Captain Yamato and Kisame are scouting the area. Kurenai and Akamaru went to look for water. Sakura is observing the town and Miyuki is supposed to be with you. I hope you didn't leave her alone" Gikaru responded.

"Well um, she said I could come back and bring these groceries! They were getting heavy!" said Kiba as he waved the bags he was carrying. Suddenly Kiba was knocked over by his enormous ninken, Akamaru.

"Stop licking me Akamaru!" Kiba laughed as his dog and he rolled around on the ground.

"Stop acting like kids and tell me where the Miyuki girl is!"

Gikaru caught Kiba's attention and he pushed Akamaru off him, "Who exactly do you think you are talking to me like that?"

"This isn't the time to argue about your ego. You left our medic alone in an enemy town and apparently you were almost killed. I'm assuming something happened where you got into a fight. If you got into a fight someone is going to try and get back at you. And if you killed someone that's going to cause a lot of problems and then-"

"I didn't kill anyone!" Kiba interrupted. "Well, at least I didn't. I'm not sure what happened to the guy who touched Miyuki."

"He touched Miyuki?" asked a concerned Hinata.

"Yeah he put his hand on her shoulder and started saying a bunch of crazy things and she beat the crap out of him." Kiba scratched his head.

"Miyuki-chan doesn't like people touching her," Hinata put her hands to her face in frustration. "We need to find her. Was it a shinobi who grabbed her?"

"Yeah, it was an Iwa shinobi."

"AKAMARU! COME BACK!" yelled Kurenai as she also ran through the bushes. Water was splashing everywhere from the large bucket she was carrying. "Oh hi everyone," she blushed. She set the bucket down next to Hinata and asked her why she looked so frustrated.

"I'm going to find her and see if she's okay," announced Gikaru.

"I'll come with-" Kiba was interrupted.

"No you're not. You're the reason we're in this mess now."

"May I come Gikaru-san?" asked Hinata.

"I rather go by myself since it would be easiest for me to go unnoticed. Thank you for the offer though Hinata-sama."

"It's going to be hard to miss you with those eyes," Kiba whispered to Akamaru.

"I'm going to be in and out of wind currents, hiding behind whatever I can find. Think before you speak baka," scoffed Gikaru.

Kiba formed a fist and started shaking it at Gikaru. Akamaru began to lick him.

"I'll be back. Notify Sakura where I've gone when she comes back."

* * *

Gikaru perched himself upon a tree over the village. He stood there overlooking the unsuspecting villagers going about their normal lives. He scanned the crowd trying to find Miyuki and couldn't find her. He decided that he should find the marketplace since that is where Miyuki would most likely be.

He jumped from tree to tree, scaling the wooden barrier around the town. From the distance he saw a pink-haired kunoichi doing the same as he was doing before. Her face suddenly turned to one of disbelief as he landed beside her.

She jolted and turned to see Gikaru right next to her, "You scared the daylights out of me Gikaru."

"I'm here to find Miyuki. That Inuzuka idiot left her alone. Apparently, they got into an argument with an Iwa shinobi and Miyuki ended up fighting him and leaving him unconscious. "

"It's too late. They have her."

* * *

The jerk from before put her in a really bad mood. She tried to stop from herself from hurting him, but he pushed her too far. Fortunately, she had been around Kiba who helped her get over her anger. He was funny, witty, and kind of cute. If it weren't for Hara, she wouldn't mind getting to know Kiba a little better. The more she thought about it though; she realized it wouldn't matter because if she wasn't good enough for Hara she wasn't good enough for a famous shinobi like Kiba.

All she needed to pick up were a few more spices and some sauces. Maybe she'd pick up some noodles and rice. Yeah, she would have to get that too. She kept walking and found a nice stand where an elderly woman was selling various wheat products.

"Hello there young lady, can I help you with something?"

"I need ramen," she smiled.

"Oh I have the perfect noodles for ramen," said the kind woman. She pointed to a bag of high-end noodles and Miyuki picked them up to read the contents.

"This is great. I'll take them," she handed the woman some money and took three bags of the ramen noodles. She kept on walking in between stand and stand and saw a trio of what seemed to be genin team. They each had Iwa forehead protectors wrapped around their foreheads and seemed to be looking for something. She wondered if they were on some sort of D-rank mission and how the assignment process worked when this town was so far from the hidden village. Whatever they were looking for would be hard to find since the marketplace was filled with people by this time.

"It's the bitch who attacked me! Get her!" Miyuki heard someone yell from behind her. She immediately spun around to face whoever was after her. It was the man from before who had a neck brace around his neck and four other shinobi who were wearing chuunin vests.

"Brats get over here!" yelled the injured shinobi to the group of genin she had seen before. They walked up to him with a strange look on their faces, "That's the woman who beat you up sensei?" asked one of the genin.

"She caught me off guard!"

"She's not even a shinobi," a black haired girl shook her head.

"Well she's not an ordinary townswoman! Get her!"

Miyuki dropped the bag she was holding and began to run in the opposite direction of the shinobi. She flipped over various merchant stands and slid between groups of people. However, the four chuunin were keeping up with her, not getting deceived by her less-than-adequate stealth tactics.

Two of the genin from before appeared in front of her and one of them slammed their hands into the ground, "Earth Release: Mud Wall Jutsu!" A wall barely a foot taller than Miyuki and about four feet wide rose up in front of the kid. She jumped onto the top of the wall and used the genin who used the jutsu as a step for her to make a leap for the town's barrier.

As she was midair she was tackled down by a blur she didn't see coming. She hit the ground first, feeling a striking pain in her back. The chuunin who was on top of her was putting the weight of his body on her legs and trying to restrain his arms. The situation she was in reminded her of too many things that she never wanted to remember.

She mustered all the strength in her legs and pulled them from under the shinobi. She tried applying some chakra to her feet and slammed them both against his chest, which sent him flying back a few feet. It was nowhere near anything Sakura could do but it was enough to get her out of that compromising situation.

The two other shinobi flickered to both of her sides and the man from before, who she assumed was a jounin, was face to face with her.

"What do you want with me?"

"I'm getting back at you for doing this to me," the jounin said as he pointed to his neck.

"You brought that upon yourself asshole," Miyuki got in a defensive stance and began to back up from the two chuunin.

"Don't think you're going anywhere!" yelled another genin that appeared from under her trying to drag her underground. She jumped and escaped the child's grasp and landed a few feet back.

"Drop the guise; it's obvious now that you're a shinobi!"

"What makes you think that?" asked Miyuki sarcastically. As she spoke her transformation jutsu melted away. Her outfit was once again her typical white jacket with extra long sleeves and white pants. Her hair went from being blonde to a darker more golden color that was about shoulder length.

"If you want me you have to come and get me," she said as she withdrew two kunai from within her sleeves. She charged at one of the chuunin first and dropped down to his knees and swept his legs from under him with her left leg. From her crouched position she lunged towards the other chuunin slamming her shoulder into his gut.

The ninja she had thrown off her from before was above her trying to drop kick her. She slid to the side and attempted to slice his throat as he came down, but she missed and tumbled forward.

"Shit," she thought. The last remaining chuunin was performing a jutsu while she was down, "_Earth Release: Earth Prison Jutsu!"_

The ground beneath her began to wrap around her, constricting her arms and legs and trapping her up to her neck. She struggled to get loose, but it was no use. She was captured.

"Good night sweetheart," was the last thing Miyuki heard before she felt a foot kick her across the side of her head.

* * *

"We need to go after them," stated Gikaru calmly. He wasn't all that worried about the safety of his teammate. He was more worried that these lowly shinobi would discover their mission.

"We're outnumbered. We should back for help," suggested Sakura.

"You're one of the Konoha Twelve and the Godaime Hokage's apprentice. One jounin and a few genin won't trouble you that much."

She put her hands to her temples and thought out the possibilities. The others would be fine; they were some of Konoha's finest. Gikaru was the head of Root; he could handle himself. She was Konoha's Healing Blossom and a member of the Konoha Twelve. Why was she doubting herself?

"Alright. Did you see in what direction they went?"

Gikaru pointed to the northwest end of the village. They both jumped over the village's gates and began a pursuit of Miyuki's captors.

* * *

Sakura and Gikaru were on top of a house next door to the building the Iwa shinobi were carrying Miyuki into. They were trying to decide what they course of action would be. They could either break the door down and rescue Miyuki or they could silently assassinate them. Sakura wasn't suited for the latter, but Gikaru was. Gikaru could easily level the fragile building with his wind jutsu and Sakura could effortlessly break the building apart plank by plank, but if they barged in by force it would attract too much attention.

"Can you materialize right into that building?" asked Sakura.

"I can't go through solid objects or appear where I want to. I can only go where the wind takes me."

"Well where is the wind going to take you right now then?"

"Let us find out," Gikaru put his hands in a concentration seal and whispered, "_Kazegan."_Sakura watched him as his once blank yellow eyes formed a tiny green pupil in the center of each one. The veins around his temples began to bulge much like the Hyuuga when they activated their Byakugan. Gikaru focused his eyes on the air currents around the building. To him, the currents glowed blue like chakra. There seemed to be an air current parallel to the one in front of him that went right alongside a second floor window. He would have to jump on the current in front of him, and then jump off and onto the one parallel to it.

"I have a path that I can take from here to that window over there," said Gikaru as he pointed to the window he was looking at before. "Once I'm in, I'll create a distraction and lure all the shinobi to where I am so you can go in and rescue Miyuki."

"I suppose I'm taking the front door?"

"Correct."

"It shouldn't be too difficult to disperse of them. They won't be able to use their earth jutsu since they're indoors. Be careful though, there might be more of them, but I doubt it."

"Got it. Move out," Gikaru jumped off the roof of the home they were on and merged with the current in front of him. He could hear Sakura gasp in the background and he slightly smirked. He swiftly glided with the air, invisible to everyone around him, and for a split second as he reached the neighboring current, materialized and glided over to it to continue his path to the window.

He reached the outside of the window and he hovered in front of it as he checked for anyone inside the room. The only things in the room were a few beds and two clothing dressers. Gikaru reached out of the current with both hands and opened the window slowly. If anyone was watching all they would see is two floating hands.

He put his legs in first and jumped into the room. He scanned the room for any air currents which he could merge with, but there was nothing stable enough for him to travel on. He crept through the room and poked his head out to see if there was anyone in the hallways. No sign of anyone. He saw a room on the other side of the hall to his left and quickly rolled to the other room. The hallway was only about a meter wide and he was able to do it in one roll.

Gikaru kept his senses keen and tried to listen for any noise. A sudden scream broke the serene silence of the building. He assumed it must've been Miyuki and he quickly dashed out of the room and towards the sound. It was from the direction he came from and ran past various empty rooms until he got to the source of the sound.

"Miyuki!" said Gikaru surprised. She was tied up to a chair with the three genin from earlier sitting around her. A relatively large, brown rat was sitting on her lap and she was frantically flailing around in the chair trying to get it off her.

"Team Zeta Assemble! We have an intruder! I, Nezumi Eri, will lead my team to defeat you!" proclaimed a short, dirty looking, and black haired genin. "Kuri, charge the enemy shinobi!"

The rat sitting on Miyuki's lap hopped off of her and began to charge at Gikaru. He tilted his head confused at what this rat could possibly do and he figured it out when he heard the rodent's owner activate his jutsu, "_Rapid Rodent Growth!"_

The tiny rat grew to a large three foot long which leapt in the air and began spinning like a wheel and tackled Gikaru to the ground. Gikaru shoved it off to the side and went towards its master. The three genin cowered in fear as Gikaru towered over them.

"Call your little rat off," Gikaru ordered.

"Kuri don't give up!" was all Eri could mumble before Gikaru slammed his fist across the child's face.

"That was harsh," Miyuki stated.

Gikaru did not respond to hear because the only thing he could hear was the rat's overbearing, ultrasonic chirping. The next thing he knew the four chuunin were at the door to the room he was in and had their weapons drawn.

"Who the hell are you?" asked one of them. Gikaru dug his hands into his equipment pouches and launched several shuriken at the chuunin. Three of them scattered, while one of them with nowhere to go took three shuriken to his chest. Gikaru quickly diverted his attention to Miyuki and untied her constraints.

"We need to get out of here," she said.

"We have to kill them first."

"We can just leave without killing them. It would be a lot less messy."

"They will send a message to Iwa about their village being attacked and our cover will be blown."

"Good point," said Miyuki as she nodded in agreement.

The two shinobi ran into the hallway and each grabbed a chuunin and began to beat them. Gikaru managed to impale one of the shinobi's throats with a kunai leaving two chuunin; one more for him and Miyuki's opponent. The other ninja that Gikaru was dealing with charged at him with a giant hammer, but Gikaru quickly performed a jutsu to keep him away, "_Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!" _He took a deep breath, distended his stomach, and punched himself in the gut to release three consecutive balls of compressed air and chakra at the shinobi. They hit the man in the stomach and sent him flying through the wooden walls of the building and down into the town.

He figured that would be a sufficient signal for Sakura to come barging into the house. He turned around and the jounin from earlier punched him square in the nose causing him to fall to the ground; his nose dripping blood as he made his way down.

"How dare you?" yelled the angered jounin. Gikaru merged with the static air around him, causing the man to believe he disappeared. He looked around and saw Miyuki still brawling with the last chuunin who seemed to have cracks in his skin; probably some sort of earth jutsu. The jounin, not worrying about where Gikaru went, began to run towards Miyuki who had her back to him. Gikaru reappeared and grabbed the man by the shoulders and pulled him to the ground.

Behind him, he heard an enormous crashing sound and the breaking of glass. He hoped that was Sakura taking care of anyone who was downstairs. Gikaru looked down at the man he had knocked to the ground and said one last thing to him, "Enjoy the afterlife," Gikaru brought a blade of wind right down the middle of his face.

Sakura healed Gikaru's nose while Miyuki patched up any minor injuries she had. The Iwa shinobi were too distracted by women and games to interrogate Miyuki as to why she was in their town. They told her that they'd be back for her later and that the genin's mission was to watch her.

When Sakura arrived in the building, there was another chuunin who was keeping watch while the jounin ran upstairs to see what the trouble was. Sakura easily defeated him with herculean strength and made her way upstairs to check up on Miyuki and himself. None of them, even Gikaru, were able to bring themselves to kill the three innocent children; it was not the way Konoha-nin operated. The chuunin were already old enough to be responsible for their own actions and the genin were most likely just learning how to be ninja. In turn, Sakura placed a sleeping genjutsu on the three genin and the rat, and they trio were each carrying one of them back to camp so that Kurenai could implant genjutsu in their minds to forget about what happened.

Gikaru was frustrated with how messy things had gotten. If everyone would have just gone along with the plan, none of this would have happened. However, there was nothing he could do about it now and hoped they could get to Iwagakure without any more trouble.

* * *

**A/N: **In case anyone was wondering, Eri's last name means rat in japanese. His clan is going to play a part in this current arc. This chapter was a little longer than the others, but more focused. Personally I liked it, there were some hints of KibaxMiyuki =P I'll keep for Hara...I think! I've got a lot of cool ideas for the upcoming chapters/arcs of the story. Theres definitely a lot of ideas I want to get down in the story. I've got a bunch of different things jotted down on my reference paper for the story. Abilities for shinobi/jutsu, characters that will be in the story, a possible spin-off(hehehe SasxSak) and a bunch of other stuff. I hope you guys liked the chapter, I worked hard on this one. Don't forget to tell me what you guys think about the possible new title for the story and I need a beta and someone for fanart too! Till later my friends and dont forget to **_review!_**


	11. Wandering Thoughts

**(formerly Root: The Kazegan)Chapter 10:**

**A/N:** It has certainly been a while since I've updated and I apologize for any readers I may have lost due to inactivity, but I've had A LOT going on in my real life so I didn't have much time to update the story much. However, my motivation is back and I've got more free time so I'm back with a new(yet short) chapter just to let everyone know that this story is still alive and it can only get more exciting from here on out!

Also, some may have noticed the name change to the story from _Root: The Kazegan_ to _The Root Chronicles_.I've changed the name of the story because I feel that as I developed the story, I realized that the focus wasn't entirely on Gikaru and his Kazegan per say but more on Root and its effect on Konoha and the differences from its former incarnation. It may not be apparent now but as the story progresses, obvious differences will emerge. For now, welcome back and enjoy _The Root Chronicles!

* * *

_She ran across the trees as quickly as possible with her two chunin teammates following closely behind. Naruto had received a distress call from Hijiri Hitomi saying that her genin team had been attacked by a group of rogue Sound operatives; her medic genin, Fukushima Takeru, was in critical condition. Naruto sent her being that she was the next best medic in the village aside from Sakura and assigned to her three man cell, Oedo Daisuke and Tomoko, the former also a medic.

It had already been an hour since they'd left and they were less than 30 minutes away from the team's given location. She was moving at an exceptionally fast pace. She had been giving a shortened version of the mission objectives. The team they were supporting was investigating disturbances by former Sound nins near the Valley of the End and they were to investigate and eliminate the source. It was a B-rank mission so the level of the nin wasn't expected to be very easy nor strong enough to bring down a member of Hijiri Hitomi's team; she was of course, Uchiha Sasuke's pupil.

"Ino-taichou, are we almost there?" asked Daisuke from behind.

"Close. Keep an eye out because we don't have an exact location. Hijiri might've left some sort of signal for us to catch on to."

"Just keep an eye out for her chest; you can spot that from miles away," snickered Tomoko.

"Hey there sis, just because you're not as well endowed as Miss Hijiri does not mean you should get offensive," said Daisuke in a sarcastic manner.

"Can you guys stop the bickering and focus on getting to Team 4 as fast as possible?" It didn't matter what they thought of Hijiri anyway. She was the prettiest woman in Konoha after all.

* * *

_The Land of Rice Fields._ She would start her search where all the treachery began. She refused to call it the _Land of Sound_ because they never had any true claim to it. Only those who were either afraid or on the Sound's side referred to it as that. She was neither and she wouldn't hesitate to tear the small country apart to find Orochimaru; or what was left of him.

The first village she was going to investigate had some ties to former Sound and was right near the Valley of the End. The villagers had been complaining about attacks on merchants and slight pillaging on surrounding farms. The remnants of the militia must be scrounging for whatever resources they can get.

She walked through the village's entrance and realized she was a bit too late. There was a great deal of destruction to the village's terrain and she could see body parts littering the ground.

Tsunade reached into her equipment pouch and withdrew a kunai. She looked around to see if there were still any apparent threats, but she saw none. Slowly, she crept in between small houses which were nearly annihilated. She heard some voices coming from behind the house she was against. She pressed harder against the wall to try and hear.

"How much longer do you think they'll be Hitomi-sensei," exclaimed a worried voice. It was definitely a girl.

"I'm not sure. I sent the distress call to Naruto-sensei about an hour ago. He sent back the confirmation within seconds so I know he sent a team out to help us," responded another familiar, feminine voice.

_Hitomi_. Hijiri Hitomi! She ran into her as she was leaving Naruto's office!

"Don't be alarmed!" she yelled. "I come in peace."

As she finished her sentence, Hijiri Hitomi was already behind her. The girl's speed was absolutely astonishing. Uchiha was making her into a prodigy.

"Tsunade-sama!" she exclaimed. "Did Naruto send you?"

"No, but I overheard you guys talking. What's wrong?"

"It's one of the Root-nin I was assigned to watch over. He's incapacitated and his breathing is slowly becoming irregular. Follow me."

She turned the corner of the damaged house she was leaning against and followed Hitomi inside. She was surprised to see that it was Team 4. The only person missing was Gikaru. On the ground, she saw Inokuza and Yokama surrounding Takeru's body.

"Takeru! I've worked with him before," said Tsunade. "How did this happen?"

The legendary beauty knelt down beside the unconscious Takeru. She put her right hand over her left and began to hover her hands above his chest; a lime green chakra began to eminate from her hands and she slowly moved them across his chest.

"He was battling a sound-nin and he took a direct hit from a high level sound jutsu," answered Yokama.

"It's apparent that he took an _extremely_ direct hit. He's bleeding internally from the severity of the blow and there is some bruising to his lungs which is causing the erratic breathing patterns. Now for reason for him being unconscious," Tsunade trailed off as she slowly moved her hands from his chest and slowly to his head. "He's cracked his skull. Part of his skull is putting pressure on part of his brain and fluids are leaking throughout his head. Treating a crack in the skull is tedious and difficult. Usually I'd have someone assisting me in the procedure but since I don't have anyone, I'm going to have to constantly switch my techniques so that I can simultaneously remove the excess liquid and heal the wound."

"Tsunade-sama, are you capable of all that?" asked Yokama.

"Is that even a question?" responded Tsunade as she grinned. She'd be lying to herself if she didn't admit that was a little bit concerned.

* * *

How amusing it was to run into Zetsu; of all people he considered he'd encounter on this Konoha tea party, he would have been the last. Despite working alongside him for several years while in Akatsuki, he knew little to nothing of the guy's abilities and to meet him again and act like old friends was certainly strange.

Even more strange though is where he found Zetsu; in a tiny Grass controlled village in the middle of nowhere is the last place he would have expected. He knew enough about the dual-minded freak to know he was never doing _nothing._ Playing devil's advocate was his favorite game and a Zetsu with no devil just wasn't Zetsu. After he was done helping the Konoha brats, he definitely wanted in on whatever the fly-trap was in on. Then again, that's if he was able to survive without these foolish flames making him shark bait.

* * *

Ino couldn't believe how the landscape had been so severely devastated. Blood, dismembered body parts, and destroyed buildings consumed the former terrain of the village. Laying not too far from her was the remnants of a sound-nin. Anything they suffered was more than deserved.

"Proceed with Caution. You two go right and I'll go straight ahead," she told her teammates.

"I'm stuck with the hopeless romantic," bickered Tomoko.

"You shouldn't talk about your twin like that Tomoko. Now go," replied Ino.

Ino proceeded with extreme caution as she examined the remainder of the village. She walked without making the slightest sound. She didn't want to be noticed in case there were any surprises left in the village.

However, it was obvious that whatever human life that once resided here had for sure evacuated. There was nothing noticeable until she spotted a light green aura emanating from one of the few intact houses.

_Medical Ninjutsu_.

Someone was being treated and they could possibly use her help. She picked up her pace and ran over to the house and leaned up against the wall; still taking even the slightest precautions. She looked to both of her sides and saw Daisuke and Tomoko leaned up on an opposing wall, also trying to get a view of what was within the damaged home.

"Please keep as quiet as possible," said a voice that the blonde bombshell vaguely recognized. "The amount of concentration that the surgery I'm performing requires is exponential. _Stop._"

Ino motioned for Daisuke and Tomoko to move in as she made her way to the front of the tiny damaged house. When she poked her head in, she was surprised to find a geared up Tsunade, Team 4, and Hijiri Hitomi around the battered body of Takeru. Hitomi motioned her hands for her to walk out of the house as she followed right behind her. Daisuke and Tomoko were walking up as she was leaving the hut.

"Hi there Miss Hijiri. How may I be of service to you?" said Daisuke foolishly as he bowed.

"Grow a pair kid," said Hitomi. Tomoko began laughing histerically. "You two are medic-nin aren't you? Lady Tsunade needs help."

"Right. Daisuke, lets go," Ino hurried over to Lady Tsunade's side and watched as she operated on Takeru. It seemed as if she was removing a fluid from his head. She made an incision on the side of his head so that she could remove the liquid, but even while she was removing the liquid, she would switch over to healing. She would then heal him while maintaining control over the liquids being secreted. It was truly an art to watch her at work. To have such precision and chakra control was inspiring. What exactly was she healing though?

She formed the proper hand seals and her hands began to glow a light green. She placed her hands over Takeru's head and saw the chaos that the sannin was trying to fix. The amount of damage and the displacement of his fractured skull was severe. For Tsunade to be maintaining the skull's position while at the same time healing it and removing the cerebral fluids by herself, was nothing but a testament to her skill. It had to be extremely tedious and dangerous though for her to be doing this caliber of surgery alone. Both Daisuke and herself had to assist.

"Tsunade-sama, I'll take over the removal of the cerebral fluids. That way you can focus on healing the fracture. Daisuke will hold the fracture in place so that it will have less of a strain on your chakra."

Tsunade took a quick glance at Ino and nodded. She was probably exhausted; she couldn't have anything or anyone disrupt her chakra control either. Had Sakura achieved such a level of medical prowess as well? She'd never seen Sakura do something at this level, but being Lady Hokage's apprentice would sure mean—Sakura outdid her again.

Daisuke had already began the seals to activate his healing ninjutsu and positioned himself behind Takeru's head. He hovered his hands on each side of the boy's head and began to hold the fracture's position. Even the slightest movement during the surgery could have devastating results. She got down beside Tsunade and placed one glowing hand on the motionless boy's forehead and placed her other hand right above the incision on the Takeru's head. There wasn't much liquid left; Tsunade had removed just enough so that it wouldn't interfere with the mending of the skull. She carefully removed the excess making sure she didn't obstruct anything during the removal.

"The lungs," Tsunade mumbled as she still focused on repairing the skull. Ino began wrapping up the fluid extraction and closed up the incision. She then moved to the other side of the boy's body and placed her focus on the boy's lungs.

From the looks of it, he had early signs of a pulmonary contusion. The distribution of oxygen was disrupted throughout his body and there was a slight hint of blue in his skin. His breathing pattern was not irregular; he wasn't having oxygen properly distributed throughout his body. Luckily, the contusion was in its early stages and the effects could be reversed.

She looked up at Tsunade—the legendary beauty. Her face was exhausted of emotion and there were tiny drips of sweat dripping down her face. She didn't let her exhaustion impede her though; she moved right down his body and began healing the rest of the boy's injuries. Daisuke moved right along side her, watching everyone of her techniques and learning from them.

Watching Tsunade at work was absolutely amazing. It's not only because her work is brilliant, but because of her sheer determination and love for what she does. She never gives up on a patient and till the day she dies, she never will.

* * *

In all his years as an ANBU, he'd never been on an infiltration mission this deep into enemy territory as he was now with a squad of non-ANBU. He definitely didn't expect to be on a mission of this gravity with a former Akatsuki either. What exactly had Naruto been thinking when he made such a rash decision? He knew the Rokudaime was unpredictable, but this brought it to another level.

What worried him even more was everyone on the team had knowledge of each other and their abilities except for one person—Gikaru. We saw some of his abilities in the Grass village and in the Rock town, but other than that everything about him was a mystery. He wondered what Kakashi-senpai felt about the situation and if he had advised Naruto at all.

He had to make sure everything went well with this mission—he had to; or else it'd prove detrimental to Konoha if they got caught. Too many important people from the Leaf were on this mission and war would no doubt be waged for any of their lives.

* * *

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A/N: **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I definitely feel like the plot is picking up, I just need to set certain things in to place before anything really happens. I want to develop the characters some more and help readers get to know the Original Characters before we get into the main plot. Please _**Review**_ and let me know how you guys liked the chapter. I look forward to reading all the _**reviews**_ and be sure to make any suggestions and leave constructive criticism! Look out for the newest chapter; It'll be out soon!**  
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